The Endless Battle
by Evocaii
Summary: For Quentin Jacobs, a boy whose life has been destroyed already, meeting Clint Barton is probably the best thing for him, but what happens when he is just a part of Natasha's past coming back to haunt her. Planning on going through the entire MCU
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Kiev - near Midnight

The streets were dark and quiet, few people were walking down the street and those who did where drunk so no one noticed the boy sitting in the shadows. They would be hard pressed to see him anyway, his clothes where dark and the shadows seemed to encase him. The boy had been there for 4 hours, hardly moving yet constantly watching the office building opposite where he was sitting

He suddenly jerked his eyes as the lights went off. SHIELD agents apparently liked to work late though the boy didn't mind, he liked the cool air flowing through his hair and on his skin, it helped him to keep focused on the mission in hand.

The boy stood up quickly startling a group of teenagers walking near by, they hadn't spotted him in the shadows. It was the first time the boy could be seen properly, he was short in build, he couldn't have been more than 5 1/2 feet yet his muscles could be seen through his thin tee shirt as lean and toned. He had short dirty blonde hair, his fringe almost reaching his eyes which where a bright shade of green.

"Oi shouldn't you be at home with your mama" one of the drunkards slurred in Ukrainian, whilst his gang laughed looking down at the boy. The boy looked at them, of course it was the biggest and the most drunk one who assumed that he would run of or start crying but the boy just smirked before stalking past them.

"I was talking to you" the man tried to grab at the boy before screaming. The onlookers had barely seen the boy move yet he somehow had the biggest member of the group, who had to be at least 6.2 feet, in and arm lock and looked close to breaking his arm.

"Leave...now." The boy spoke softly yet his tone was clear. A loud crack could be heard which caused the drunk to scream louder. The gang ran off, realising it wasn't worth trying anything.

The boy turned his attention back to the office, where a man had just come out of the side entrance , clearly exhausted after what must have been a long day. The man was wearing a white lab coat and had a suit jacket slung over his arm, which almost hid the holster that was around the man's shoulder.

This will be to easy. The boy stooped down and smeared his hand with mud, he then pulled out a small knife from his pocket and made a small cut on his cheek.

He ran quickly across the empty road, colliding heavily with the man. "Help, please you have to help." Tears running down the boys cheek now. The man looked startled to have the boy pulling at him, the boy looked to be 14 or 15 and was tugging at his arm. "My... My brother, they..." The boy said through harsh sobs. "The knife and... And so much blood."

"Stop, calm down, tell me what's wrong." The man spoke in a calming voice, clearly used to stressful times.

"My brother, we live across the street, but the men, they burst in yelling, my brother grabbed one but he stabbed him, he was bleeding. I think he might be... Be." The boy buried his face in his hands

"Stay here I will go find him. Just stay here ok." The man pulled out his gun whilst looking across the road. He didn't notice the boy's hand reaching into his pocket and pulling a short knife out. It was to late for the man, who was one of the best agents SHIELD had to offer but that didn't stop his throat from being cut as the boy jumped up on his back and ran the knife across it, pushing in deep and causing a gasp to escape the man as he slumped over.

The boy was already walking away before the agent had even dropped and had his phone out, sending a message

"Agent Casper down, awaiting orders."

His phoned dinged a minute later showing a picture. Well this just got interesting.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Barton PoV

The bed was felt so good, all warm and comfortable, no kids running around downstairs, The first thought in The mans head was, I really do hate Mondays.

Agent Clint Barton was just coming of a 2 week leave after a mission in Rome, not everything had gone according to plan, well none of it had and he had ended up having to shoot his way into a fortified base just to rescue Sitwell, although he would have something to tell at the Christmas party when he found Sitwell hanging by his feet with two old men about to start lowering him into a wood chipper. Makes up for when Sitwell and Tasha found him in Reo. Barton suddenly shuddered at the thought causing Laura to stir, pushing Barton out of bed.

"Your turn to make breakfast for the kids. Go, now before I have to get out to come after you."

A few hours later, after Laura had left for work, Clint packed up his bag and drove into work. The New York office of SHIELD was one of the biggest buildings he has been in, and that included the Middle Eastern Palace he had rescued Nat from. SHEILD did like to portray and imposing image, thus a ten foot tall eagle looked across the concourse that was the entryway into shield.

His phone beeped as he walked through the door

"Mission alert, level 6, high priority, my office in 5." It was signed by Fury so Clint knew that this was gonna be a fun day, or as fun as they ever where when Fury wanted to see him.

"How was the vacation." He caught a flash of red hair out of the corner of his eye. Natasha Romanov was a hard person to miss, even if she was so sneaky half the time.

"If you can call it a vacation, I pulled half the dinning room wall out to extend it through to the living room," his tone was calm, Tasha was one of the few people at SHIELD who he felt comfortable around, everyone else was intimidated by him, "perks of being a top agent" was what Natasha called it. "Fury pull you in to, haven't even gotten to my desk yet, let alone the coffee machine.

"I grabbed you a cup" Natasha said whilst handing him the cardboard cup, "ran into Hill as well, she looked worried"

Agent Hill was one probably the second most dangerous person Clint knew after Natasha.

"It will be fine, probably just more escaped Rhinos, that was a fun afternoon" they both laughed as the doors opened.

"Did I miss the joke, cause I ain't laughing right now" Fury's voice echoing down the corridor. He sounded cold, then again he always sounded cold.

"What's the mission sir, I thought you would let me have at least 5 minutes before you pulled me in"

"Very funny Agent Barton but something has come up, last night Agent Casper was found dead" Clint felt dread corse through him at the news, he must have shown it because Nat looked across at him with a sad look

"Info sir? What happened?"

"We don't know, no cameras, no witnesses, not even a God dam mouse saw what happened, all we know is that his throat was cut and we don't know who did it." Clint knew that when Fury admitted that he didn't know something then this really was bad.

"Is this linked to Agent Carter and Front sir?" Both agents had been killed in the last two weeks, one was shot in the chest whilst the over was pushed in front of a train.

"And I'm officially linking it to Chang's death as well, that car crash never sat well with me, he aced his advanced motor course. I'm giving you the open book on this you two, a kill order has been issued, I want whoever did this in a week and I want a reason and names. Just remember that this operative is highly trained and dangerous."

As Clint and Natasha walked away from Fury's office Natasha turned to him and said "Well where do we start?"

"I've got some ideas, come on. We need a Quinjet, I heard Kiev is lovely this time of year."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The yellow Manor House on the most expensive street in Kiev was pristine, a fresh coat of paint. New flowers in the garden and a lovely Mercedes in the drive way. That was why Clint was surprised that he had a shotgun barrel in his face when he rang the doorbell.

"Agent Barton... Are you here to kill me" the man holding the gun said in English, though with w strong Russian accent

Clint wasn't surprised, you didn't become the leader of the Ukrainian Mafia by being soft. "Not today, just a few questions, so get that thing out of my face before I have to make you move it."

The man was Nicola Valdenko, hailing from northern Russia he had to escape the country after annoying some politician and had come to Kiev to carry on his criminal mastermind. He had done quite well for himself all things considered.

"Big SHIELD agent want my help!" He let out a huge laugh, "Come, come we go through to the study." Nicola was a big man, strong arms and a big chest, if the rumours where true he had once ripped of a rivals arm and hit two bodyguards with it but Clint never put much stock in rumours. "My wife, Shiera, she is from America you know, very beautiful." He motioned to a picture on the wall.

The two men sat down across a desk. Nicola pulled out a bottle of Vodka and two glasses, pouring it out for the two of them. "So tell me, Mister Barton, what do you need to know." Nicola was never strong with English, but the vodka defiantly didn't help

Clint slapped a picture down on the desk. "I need to know who did this."

Clint watched as Nicola lent in to see the picture, it was Agent Casper in a morgue. To his credit the big man didn't even look away before meeting Clint's eyes. Nicola lent back in his chair, draining his glass before pouring himself another.

"He was SHIELD?" Clint nodded quickly.

"Then it was not one of my men, we know better the to deal with SHIELD, fastest way into the ground I say" Nicola still talked light but Clint noticed that Nicola's smile had faded. "Please... Don't think I had anything to do with this."

"Then pleasure doing business with you, give my regards to your wife from America." Clint quickly got up and left the room, He heard Nicola breath out as he walked away.

He met Romanov across the street and they got into their car. The Ferrari was very flashy and not at all subtle but with 4 agents dead neither of them felt much like being subtle. Clint drove off the moment he felt Natasha next to him

"He had no idea, I could tell, he thought I would kill him."

"I take it you didn't?" Natasha smiled at him.

"If Nicola has no idea, this goes way above petty crime," the cold feeling had come back in his chest, he was Agent Barton now, cold and calculating. "We need to find who did this and fast, before they kill again."

He looked out of the window as he pulled up to the curb. The alleyway where Agent Casper was killed was just across the street. He got out and walked to where a small patch of blood covered the floor. Clint felt anger rise inside of him,

"Casper didn't deserve this! A dingy alleyway in fucking Kiev" Clint kicked out at the wall

"Clint. Look at me," He felt his eyes bore deep into Tasha's, "You knew him right? Casper?"

He felt his face being pulled downward, he couldn't let the pain show but he knew Nat saw it anyway, "Lee Casper was one of the bravest agents I've ever seen, he pulled me out of that situation in Naples, and again in Bagdad." His eyes darted down to look at the pool of blood. Clint sat back against the wall, pain etched deeply onto his face.

Looking around, as the hairs on his neck were standing up. Someone was standing at the corner, a hoodie pulled up over the face, Clint stood up and took a step towards him but the boy took a step back, looking scared.

"It's ok, we won't hurt you, we are investigating this murder." Natasha's was soothing, Clint thought that it was better for her to the talking, her Ukrainian was much better than his.

"Um... Sir" the boy's voice was quiet, he spoke In stilted English "I was here... No there... Last night, my older brother and his pighead friends, they were drunk, I was just following them, I was bored but there was someone. Young, a boy, he could not be older than, maybe 14 or 15. My brother, he taunt him and he..." The boy gives a painful sniff, "the boy break his arm, quickly" he clicks his finger "the bone fragments, they splinter, rupture vein. He's dead now"

"What did you do?" Natasha's eyes where serious, Clint felt as if a hand was constricting his chest, he knew that this mission was not going to end well.

"My brother, his friends, they all ran, I jumped back, I hid in bush across street, and I watch and I... I film" the boy pulled out a cheap phone.

"Can I have that?" Clint held out his hand and the boy passed the phone to him. Clint quickly copied the video to his portable. "Thank you, you don't know how much help you've been."

Clint and Natasha quickly drove back to the Jet which was parked on the roof of and industrial building on the outskirts of Kiev.

Clint jumped inside and pulled out a keyboard, linking the tablet to the big screen.

"Let's see what you've got" Clint turned on the video and watched as a small figure ran across the street and saw Casper look frantically across the street before pulling out his gun, but then had to watch as the boy jumped on Caspers back and pulled the dagger across his throat.

Both assassins in that jet jumped, neither could pull of the move better, Casper quickly slumped to the floor and the boy was already moving away, pulling out a communicator, his face lit up as a picture came through on the screen and Clint saw a pair of emerald green eyes flare in the darkness.

For the first time in nearly ten years of working for shield, Clint felt genuinely scared of what he just saw, realising that this boy could kill so easily.

"Look at that, zoom in" Nat was pointing at the picture. "Oh my god, call Fury now, get him to lock down the base, check everywhere for that boy. We will be back in an hour."

The picture of Shield New York headquarters lit up both their faces.

At the same time in New York.

Q PoV

"Florence Jackens" the boy felt a tug of laughter, what man was called Florence nowadays. Then again his name had been Quentin, the name from when he was just that broken little child, before he learnt the ways of the world. He grimaced at the memory of his early training.

"NO!" He hadn't realised he had yelled out but he had to clear his head, he couldn't afford to have a breakdown. Not here, an unfortunate side effect of his upbringing. He parked the SUV on a side road.

He pulled out the SHIELD ID that he had taken of the office worker from the bar, he now worked in HR, or at least his father did. He shook his head, he wouldn't not be broken, he heard the old lady in the back of his mind,

"A good agent is marble to every other breakable person, but you are stronger than that, you are iron." He shrugged of the thought, pulling his bag around his shoulder and getting out of the car and crossing the road.

He liked New York, all the noise, the hustle and bustle. Everyone had somewhere to be and he could be invisible among them.

He pulled a wallet out of a passerby's pocket, dropping it after he pulled out $10. He stopped at a stall and bought a newspaper and a bag of mints.

He walked down a long concourse until he reached the front door of SHIELD, pushing it open to reveal a large lobby with big metal barriers. Shield does love its display, Workers would put the card flat down against a scanner and the barrier would let you through. The metal looked as if it would cut you in half if you got caught in it.

He pushed through the mass of workers and put the card on the scanner but it didn't let him through. Someone put a massive hand on his shoulder.

"Um sir, you card won't, it doesn't recognise you. Would you step this way please sir." A burley security guard was pulling him to a security desk.

"Why do you have this card, think it's funny to steal this and waltz in?" The guard has his arms crossed with a sour look on his face. Clearly he thought that the boy was just some punk from the street.

"No, I'm so sorry sir, you see that's not my card, it's my fathers you see and he said to use it to go inside and it would be ok and you see-" his stammering was quite convincing, he had to admit that even to himself, just the faintest touch of better than you in his voice worked enough to put the guard on the back foot.

The guard's face softened "Yes well, you will just have to wait. I need conformation before I can let you in."

"But sir, my dad he is taking my sister to school and you see that I have the day off, it's a study day, you know like with exam-" He stopped when the guard raised an eyebrow, "anyway, my dad said he didn't trust me to study at home so I had to go to work with him, and that I could study there, he said to have a coffee and paper on his desk. I... I don't want to dis-" the guard put up a hand

"What's in the bag" the boy opened it to show that there was only a laptop and a newspaper inside.

"Ok kiddo. Just this once I'll let you through, but make sure you dad comes to see me." The boy laughed inwardly, it would be pretty hard for Mr Florence to come in today as he was currently in his toilet throwing up the drug that he had put in his drink last night

"I remember when I had a boy your age, never could get him to study but it never did him any good to sit around." The guard waved a card over the closest barrier and entered a special override code. The doors opened and the boy stepped through

"Thank you so much sir, I.. really thanks a lot."

You just killed your director

He got into an elevator, pulling out his phone and writing a nonsense text in the corner, getting out on the HR floor, he walked to the nearest stairwell going onto the landing.

Looking up and down he smiled to himself. The building was huge, no one ever used the stairs.

He began to run, moving much faster than a normal 14 year old as he sped up the stairs. Each floor became a grey blur. Why didn't they paint any of landings an interesting colour, like green, or hot pink! That would have made this so much more interesting. "Stop it" he said quietly, he had to concentrate now.

Once he reached the 38th floor he waited by the door, pulling out a little card reader he swiped the card through. A display came up with different boxes for the information on the card

He had already cracked the security on the card the day before so the next step was easy, he simply replace the level 2 clearance that his 'dad' had had and entered a number 10, a level of clearance that was reserved only for the director.

The door accepted his card without any question. This floor contained only the directors office and his secretary's along with Agent Hill's office and her team. The only person who would be in this early though was the director himself.

His Intel couldn't decide if Fury slept on his office because he never seemed to leave it to go home. He pulled out small caliber gun from his backpack. It had been hidden inside his laptop which had been hollowed out if you opened it and was lined with a special coating to conceal what was inside.

He walked along the corridor silently, the gun held out in front of him. Fury's office was at the end of the corridor and he felt his pulse quicken as he neared his kill.

Once he reached the door, he quickly pulled open the door and stepped inside. Fury had his back to his desk looking out over the city.

"You know, it's almost sad to see you here." The boy jumped as Fury spoke. He saw on the wall security camera footage, Fury had watched him coming.

"How did you know I was coming" his voice sounded hoarse, he hadn't spoken in several days. He heard his slight accent, though it would have been difficult for someone else to hear, his American was excellent.

"It turns out that my Agents are a lot better than you think, especially when you've killed their friends." Fury turned to face him, "why kid, why do it, why these 4 Agents and why you."

The boy smirked, "you give me to much credit, I only counted 3"

"We I'll be dammed, the car crash wasn't you then, but it doesn't change the fact. Who are you?" Fury squinted at him with his one good eye.

"Does it matter, you will be dead and I can finish this mission." The boy pulled the safety off the gun.

"Who sent you on this mission, what do they want?" Fury glared at him, speaking slowly.

"They never told me" the boy said under his breath as he shot Nick Fury in the chest.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 Clint PoV

Fury threw of the headset, they watched through the cameras as the boy looked around confused, the hologram project had worked well, but they hadn't got any information.

"Barton get out there, Romanov, you're on the stairs right? Well get up here now. Barton, you are to detain the operative at all costs, you hear me?"

Clint nodded and ran out of Hill's office. His arm shot out as the boy as he came running round the corner but the boy hooked a fist around Barton's arm, pulling it behind Clint's back. Clint stamped on the boy's toe, hearing the bone break as the boy cried out. His arm felt close to snapping but he managed to push the boy off.

The boy jumped at him again and pushed him to the ground where he straddled his chest. The boy punched him right in the face, causing a cut above his eye. Clint felt his head start to spin, he hadn't been hit that hard since Manilla, and that had been a wrecking ball. Fuck me he's fast

He hit back, pummelling the boy in the kidneys which caused him to roll off of his chest but Clint soon felt pressure around his neck as he felt the boy's legs lock around his throat, cutting of his air.

Any moment now Natasha, the stair door was ripped open. Black was tinting the corners of his vision now as the boy squeezed his throat closed with powerful muscles taut across his legs, but he felt his eyes flick up into the bright green eyes, which had just seen Nat running into the corridor.

Clint was not ready for what he saw run through those eyes. Fear was the first word that Clint thought but then he realised that that wasn't enough, it was more than fear it was terror, something so powerful that it was almost psychotic.

He immediately felt the pressure on his wind pipe release as the boy froze. Clint took the opportunity fast and knocked the boy's head against the wall. Hard. he slumped to the floor.

Clint stood up, massaging his neck, taking deep breaths. That kid had been strong, like freaky strong, and with skills that would make Nat proud.

Thinking of Nat, he looked across the corridor and looked at her. Nat had slumped back against the wall and curled up. Clint has never seen her like this before. He felt pain and fear radiate off of her. This was not Agent Romanov before him, this was a scared girl, Clint had never seen her quite like this.

With a start Clint realised that tears were streaking down the her face. Her eyes looked up at him and Clint saw shame in them

"Tasha... Nat, what's going on?" She looked up but she only shook her head.

"Get him down to lockup, now!" Fury's voice echoed down the corridor, "find out everything you can."

Clint picked up the boy and slung him over his shoulder, he weighed barely nothing.

The boy was strapped down to a gurney in a concrete cell in the basement of shield HQ. A doctor was stitching his head, which had cracked open against the wall. Clint and Natasha watched through a two way mirror as the doctor worked.

Natasha finally turned to Clint after nearly an hour of silence.

"You know my history Clint, you know the bad I've done. The hospital fire, Sao Paulo, what I did to my father. You know that i can never get rid of the red in my ledger, but him, that boy in there. He will be why my ledger is dripping blood... Forever." The tears started again.

"Tasha" Clint spoke quietly into her ear, "it's ok, just tell me, you promised that you had told me everything, we both know that's the only way you can make it better in the end, what can be that bad that even you can't admit to it." Clint was scared for her, was scared of what she was about to reveal.

"God. I must have been only 14, maybe 15, about 4 years before you found me. I was still there, at the Red Room, everyday would be some kind of new test but I could tell that that day would be different. There was a man at a cell door, he told me to go inside. He said that phase 1 was beginning."

Clint watched the tears grow thicker as she recounts her tale.

"Inside was a boy, he must have been 4 years old. Then the order came through, they told me to make the boy tell them what they want. I..." Her voice catches and then breaks, "I can barely think of what i did to him, I tortured him for over 6 hours, I would scream at him, tell them what they want, Just tell them what they want, but those green eyes would always scream back, he didn't know, didn't know anything, but they knew that. It was a test for me, to see if I would do anything asked, and I did exactly what they wanted." Her sobbing became uncontrolled now.

Clint pushed forward, wrapping an arm around her, "it's not your fault Nat, you were brainwashed, we agreed, nothing you did was your fault." He waited a long moment, "I've got to go talk to him, I'll get Fury down here, you need to tell him everything, Nat he needs to know why this boy is what he is. Just stay here ok."

Clint walked out the door, quickly firing off a message to Fury and Hill, "come down here, Nat needs to talk to you both." After he hit send he opened the concrete door and stepped inside.

Q PoV

The boy woke up quickly, his emerald eyes scanning the room quickly. He was in a cell. Agent Barton was standing in the corner. He was able to sit up on his bed, he was surprised that he wasn't strapped down. His head throbbed painfully, though when he felt the cut, it had been stitched closed.

The room was small, a metal toilet sat lonely in the corner and a two way mirror started down imposingly from one wall.

"Where am I?" The boy's voice sounded cracked and raw, He felt thirsty and tired but He wasn't going to let Barton know that.

"In a cell, where else" Barton stated plainly, still starring at him.

The boy tried to read the agent's face but it was blank, there was no anger there, nothing except for his eyes there was a faint sign of something there, was it... pity, no sadness. Sadness and horror.

"How old are you?" Barton's voice was quiet and controlled.

"14 maybe 15, no defiantly 15. Why does it matter?" Still searching for an answer in Barton.

"Do you know what happened to you 10 to 11 years ago?" Barton had hit the money shot, the boy's eyes widen, becoming huge emerald spheres. The boy only nodded. "What happened after that, can you tell me?"

The boy nodded again, but didn't speak. His eyes had fallen and he fell back against the wall.

Barton sat down next to him, he felt the warm body close to him. "It's the only way I can help you, you've got to let me in kid."

The boy looked up at Barton, "Your brain. It's more powerful than you could know, the pain, that much pain. It broke down the mental barriers, I almost went insane, but I didn't, they pulled me out the other side after she had broken me down. I was smarter and stronger, more focused. It made my body better too, the mind made the body change until I became faster than any normal person"

"And they trained you to be a killer with your new abilities." The boy only nodded again. Clint looked at the wall, he had the look of someone who's mind was miles away, lost in his imagination.

"I became no one, an outcast to society." The boy looked at the floor.

"That doesn't have to be true, what's your name at least?" Clint looked the boy straight in the eye.

"They didn't give me a new one, and they didn't let me keep the old one." The boy had lane back down on his bed.

"What was your old one then?"

"Quentin, Quentin Jacobs, but I was just called Q"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 Barton

Clint was standing back in the corridor. Nick, Maria and Nat around him.

"He is no different that Nat, she was brainwashed by the same people, he can't be held account-" Clint was speaking quickly, his tone harsh. He didn't feel like joking around today.

"What would you have me do Agent? He is a threat, he killed three agents and hasn't proved that he won't do it again."

"Give me some time, I saw it in him, the world messed him up but Q... He's a good kid really. I just need to get through to him. He could help us, he's fifteen, that's only a year younger than some people who enter the academy and he already exceeds that training." Clint tried not to let a desperate tone enter his voice. He felt as if he had to save the boy sitting in that cell. He had felt the same after talking to Nat for the first time.

"The academy lasts two years minimum, after that a few months of office work, no agent is running around at 15!" The glare that Fury gave him was overpowering but Clint wasn't about to back down.

"So what, we give up on him. I can't let that happen, Nat would never forgive herself, we have to make it better between them and the only way to do that is to bring him over to our side, he can't integrate back into society, it's not an option for him. that boy would barely manage to survive around other boys, let alone the fact that the Red Room would catch back up with him and take him back" Clint was yelling now.

"He's a special case, we all were special cases. I was, Nat was, fucking hell even Coulson was a god dam special case and look how we turned out." He could see Nat smile out of the corner of his eye.

"Fine Barton" Fury snarled at him, "have your little project, but it's all on you now." And with that he stalked away, Hill following close behind.

Clint smiled to himself and walked back inside the cell to find Q lying still on his bed. "Q, I want you to meet someone, this is Agent Natasha Romanov." He motioned for her to come inside and she stepped through the door.

Q's eyes burst open the second he saw her, he frantically looked around for an escape but after realising that he couldn't run, he sank backwards into the corner, curling up into a tight ball with his legs tucked up to his chest.

"Q there is no way I can easily say this, but i want you to know how deeply sorry I am for what I did to you, it's one of the things I can barely believe I did, and all I've wanted to do since is atone and make up for it" Natasha tried to speak as calmly and softly as she could but her voice caught almost immediately, tears started to form on her eyes again.

She gasped as Q got up, and walked across the room. Clint could see tears in his eyes as well. He almost lept forward as Q flung himself forward, but caught himself when he realised that Q want attacking her, he had flung an arm around her and was holding onto her tight, both of them sobbing into eachother.

Q PoV

He wasn't quite sure why he did it, but the moment he saw her sitting there, the famous Black Widow, broken and crying, all his fear melted away. He felt empty inside, he felt confused and conflicted. This wasn't how he was meant to fell, how he was meant to act. He was a killer, an assassin, nothing more or less and yet here he was hugging a woman who tortured him.

It took nearly ten minutes for both of them to calm down. Q felt the pain fall out of him, all the anger and hatred he had bottled up inside at this girl who had hurt him fell away as he realised the truth.

Q turned to Barton, "can you give us a minute? Please." Barton nodded and left.

Q turned back to Romanov, "what should I call you?" His voice was quiet, but the fear had gone.

"Nat, or Tasha, either would be fine." Her eyes where puffy and wet when Q looked into them.

"How did you escape, how did you get away from them, from her?" Q's eyes were open wide, there was no hiding his emotions now.

"Barton got me out, he was sent to hunt me down, he made a different call and here we are" Nat turned her head to look at the wall which bordered the corridor where Clint would be standing.

"And you, him. You are good. I mean better people. You try and help others. How are you different than before?" To a normal person Q would have made no sense but Q saw that she understood what he meant. In the Red Room you are taught that there is no bad or good in the world, only what people do to survive.

"She was wrong about the world you know. When she said that no one helps others. People do, everyday. Barton showed me that and now I do good, or at least do the bad things that will help people in the long run." Q flinched at the thought of the Mistress of the red room. She was not someone he wanted to think about.

"Did he help you?" Nat nodded, "can he help me?" She nodded again. "I've seen you at the weakest you've ever let anyone see haven't I?" She nodded for a third time, "I'm really sorry for what you went through"

She laughed at that, he was taken aback. " gah you are so like Clint, after what I did to you, you have to go and say sorry to me, Clint will be happy to see that in you." Q merely smiled before getting up and walking out the door

Q walked out into the corridor, Clint was leaning against the wall.

"I heard you yelling outside my cell earlier." Clint didn't say anything, just locked eyes with Q. "I can't go back to how things were?" Clint shook his head, "I've had enough. Enough running around and being a puppet, I want to help people, save them even. Can you help me like you helped Nat?" Clint smiled and all the pressure built up in Q's chest released. He finally thought that he was going to be ok from now on.

"I can do better than last time, do better than with Nat." Clint had a light voice now, like he just cracked a joke. Q raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Because I've got a wife this time who makes the best treacle tart."

Q let a small smile slip across his face.

Q waited outside the door to his cell whilst Clint went into it to talk to Nat, I didn't take long for her to come out and when she saw him she smiled brightly.

He followed the two agents to the elevator where they rode to the 37th floor. Q didn't realise that is was late but it was pitch black outside the windows. They walked along a corridor until they reached an office. The name on the door said Phil Coulson, but someone had tacked on a piece of paper underneath that said Super Dad.

Clint opened the door and stepped inside and motioned for Q to follow him. A man turned to face him who looked to be in his late thirties or early forties. He held out a hand for Q to shake which Q took.

"It's good to finally meet you, I read your file and I know what Clint is like so I suppose the only surprise is that it took him 6 hours to get you out of that cell." Coulson smiled, he had a warm happy face, Q felt like he could trust this man even if he couldn't trust anyone else.

"He was unconscious for 5 of those hours so that doesn't really count, anyway though, Q this is Phil Coulson, he is mine and Nat's hander and all round super nanny-"

"Call me super nanny again and I will have to taser you Barton. Again I might add." Clint looked afraid which is saying something. Phil only smiled, Q realised that Coulson shouldn't be messed around.

"Hurry up boys, I'm hungry and we all are tired after this day I think." Nat was yelling down the corridor as she walked away towards the elevator.

"Can I just get something?" Q looked around the office quickly to scan for it.

"It's probably in that box on Barton's desk in the next room, though I will warn you, Barton boobytrapped his desk after the someone put a water bomb in it." Coulson smiled as he got lost in the memory whilst Q found the box and narrowly avoided the dart that shot out from a drawer on the desk. He pulled out a short knife that looked as if it was thirty years old, an old Russian commando knife.

"Though I will warn you that Laura doesn't let you have any weapons at the dinner table, we put most of them in the hatstand, is that a Spetnaz knife?" Clint looked at it closer now, in awe of the ancient knife would have been out of production for 20 years at least.

"Yes, it's the only thing I've got left of my old life, it was my father's, I pulled it out of his hand after he died. I doubt I could cut through butter with it." Q felt happier with it back In his hand, though he still had the flash of his fathers dead eyes looking at him.

Q stowed the knife in his jacket as they walked out the room, Clint fired off a text saying he was coming home and was bringing strays with him

As they reached the garage Clint walked over to his car, a sleek Lamborghini that was painted bright orange with red flames on it. Q smirked when he saw it, getting into the passenger seat, knowing Barton wouldn't let him drive so quickly. Nat and Coulson where taking their own cars but would meet him at home, though Phil was stoping of to get a pudding.

Once they were on the road, with the lights of New York flashing by, Q felt like he had to get it of his chest, guilt was wracking through him.

"Clint, I wanna say I'm sorry. I want to know their names." Q felt as if fire was lapping beneath him. His voice still came out quite and timid.

Clint swerved the car onto the pavement and stopped, turning to look at Q, an angry look in his eyes. Q felt a stab of fear through him

"This is how me and Nat started, I got her to realise that It was not your fault Q, it never will be and never was and I won't move this car until you accept that, ok. Look at me," Q looked up, meeting Clint's steely look. "What they did to you, what they put you through, I can hardly believe it, I don't want to believe it, but that makes it their fault, not yours. Soon we start training, we are going to fight back against these people and we are going to win ok." Q nodded and Clint started the car again. Q felt relieved by what Clint said, but still felt a stab of guilt through him at the memory of their corpses.

"I need to know one thing though, Clint. I need to know about you and Nat, why are you helping me, I killed your friends"

Clint smiled, "you will, always have me and Nat and Coulson, we will always be there for you. I saw something in you, Nat and Coulson saw it to, it's clear across your face that on the inside you are a good person Q, and i won't ever stop believing in that."

"What about Fury though?" Q felt as if he had to know what Fury is really like, because he doesn't want to trade one evil organisation for another.

"I trust Fury to do what he thinks Is best. I don't trust him however." Q knew that Clint was telling the truth, he turned to look back out at the lights speeding past

"Ok, that's good enough for me."

The rest of the drive passed in silence until they reached Barton's house, he had a terraced house with a little garden in the front and back. Q realised that what he thought was the next house along didn't have an entrance which that the inside is huge.

Clint let himself in, Phil and Nat had already arrived but the first person Q saw was a young lady with a lovely face, she looked beautiful but motherly with the kindest face Q had ever seen.

"Q this is my lovely wife Laura, Laura this is Q, she works as a doctor at the local hospital near here"

"Gosh Clint could you bring in any more strays, this one looks ready to drop. Come on through dinner is on the table and getting cold. It's lovely to meet you Q" Laura smiled and then quickly turned and walked back through to the dinning room.

Q took his place along the side of the table. Opposite a young girl who had to be Clint's daughter, their eyes were exactly the same. Clint hadn't lied at least. The meatballs where the best.

Clint grabbed a beer from the fridge before sitting down. Immediately he was regaled with the latest news about the swimming club that Cooper, who Q learned was Clint's eldest son, was at, and the dance club Lilia went to, how the Disney movies would be better if they had Kung fu, like that movie Aunt Nat had shown them that mummy wasn't supposed to know about.

Q let his mind wander, it felt so alien to him to hear this idle chatter. If this is what family life is, I wonder how Clint survives? Then maybe that was what Nat has meant about there being good people in the world, this is what is was like to have a loving family around you.

He felt for the old knife in his pocket, it made him feel better to hold it just flick it out like he remembered his dad doing. Flick out, Flick in. Flick out , Fli- "Mum, Q's got a weapon at the table."

He eyes shot open, Clint and Nat were sniggering. Busted.

"That's a dollar in the jar. We have to keep strict rules around here or Clint will pull out a grenade at the table again" Laura turns around and grabs a jar that was filled to the brim with ones. "We combine our swear jar and weapon jar into one, still hasn't worked though with the bad mouth on those two" Laura pointed at Clint and Nat "even when they are speaking in Russian."

"I'm really sorry mrs Barton, I don't have a dollar." Clint frowned at Laura, he had forgotten to tell her about Q's past.

"Well I guess you will just have to take those two up to bed then, that's torture enough" Q flinched at her wording but no one noticed over the groans of the Barton siblings. "I let them stay up, to see daddy and this is what happens, moaning and groaning, off to bed both of you. And Q you look ready to drop as well, two doors down from Lilia's is the guest room, your sleeping in there ok"

Clint's PoV

Q had just been dragged upstairs quite forcibly by Lilia who had taken a liking to him it seemed. He heard distant shouting and running water as his two children got ready for bed.

Whilst Q was gone Clint gave Laura the condensed backstory to Q, he left out the connection to Nat but still, by the end of the story Laura looked stricken. "He's only 15 you say, he's had a worse life than most people ever have. I shouldn't have told him off about that knife, This must be so hard for him, coming into the real world like this from what his life was like. I'm going to go check on him."

With that Laura quickly rushed out of the room

The three agents sat in silence downstairs for a long time

"Clint, what are we going to do with him, after tonight." Natasha looked concerned.

"We are going to train with him, and then it's up to him."

Q PoV

Q woke up early the next day, the sun had barely risen and he couldn't hear a sound in the house, Nat and Phil had gone home, but they barely lived ten minutes away so that didn't matter much.

Breathing deeply he got up and silently went downstairs. Lacing up his trainers he opened the front door before realising that Clint would freak if he was missing, so he scribbled a note out and then left.

Q loved the feeling running gave him, everything breezing past. He could let all his distractions go as he sped up. People were turning to watch as he ran by. He was running faster than most sprinters and yet he had already been running for 45 minutes.

After an hour he arrived back at Clint's house and knocked on the door. It was quickly opened by Lilia who pulled at him. Apparently she had wanted to watch cartoons with him but it was to late now.

They walked through to the dinning room where Clint and Laura were talking. After he entered they both stopped their conversation and turned to him.

"How was your run?" Laura's voice was friendly but Q realised that he had interrupted something. "Come, sit Clint made waffles. You two've got a big day ahead of you."

"It felt good, thanks" Laura looked sadly at him, Q was worried that he had offended her, he wasn't used to thanking people so he quickly moved on. "What were we doing today, are we stating training?"

Laura flashed an evil grin. "Ha, no today you get the day off, both of you are gonna spend the day with me and Nat, which means both of you are coming shopping!"

Clint groaned but Q felt a spark of excitement in him, his first day in normal society.

Shopping actually turned out quite well. Once Nat realised that Q didn't have anything but the clothes on his back, she managed to buy an entire wardrobe for him. He got hoodies, jeans, t-shirts and trousers, as well as some formal shirts and even a tie.

"I could get into anywhere with these clothes, I could look so different just by changing shirts." Q was rifling through the pile on the counter.

"Did you pick anything out?" Clint's eyes were questioning.

"I didn't see anything else that would be useful. Most of the clothes don't have pockets or are to thin or-" Clint cut him off by raising his hand

"Did you not see anything that you liked?" Q looked confused at Clint

"What do you mean? Just buying something for no reason?"

Clint just sighed, "basically, yeah. Most people if they see something they like, that's what influences them to buy it."

"I think I understand what you mean, though it seems a bit of a waste to me." Clint looked at him. Q felt as if he had said something wrong, this commercial world was difficult to break into. "I'm sorry if I-"

Q was surprised when it was Laura who spoke, "You should never feel bad about learning what the real world is like Q, it won't help you if you constantly feel bad. I think it's great that you get to see what life would be like if you hadn't grown up like you did." Laura gave him another warm smile, before pulling out her phone. "Oh shoot, I've gotta run Clint, they need me at the hospital, look after him. And don't buy any more guns, we've got enough already" She kissed Clint on the cheek before running off, though Clint just scowled at her,

"Someone can never have to many guns"

Clint PoV

Nat, Q and Clint walked around the shopping mall for another hour, Q looking into shop windows and marvelled at some of the most mundane things.

"How can a shop only sell shoes, does it even stay in business?" Clint just smiled at Q, he wasn't looking forward to explaining girls to him

After the long walk around the shops, the trio went to find coffee and a place where they could talk quietly.

"We need to find out some things about you now Q, like your school, or like school work you did." Q almost smiled at Barton.

"What they did to me, it made my mind stronger in different ways. It made me a lot smarter, I wouldn't called myself the cleverest person but I pick things up quite quickly." Clint had the feeling that the boy was being modest about himself.

"Q, I've also been meaning to ask you, do you want your own place to live? I mean not that Laura and I mind having you bunk at our house, but I would understand if you wanted to be alone. I don't know how you could stand to live around is for much longer" Clint felt as if his smile was becoming fixed now.

"When I lived back in the Red Room, my bunk had a small cot and a mat in it, all the bathrooms where shared and my closest one was down the hall. I didn't share it with anyone though, i was alone in my corridor. So, I um don't want to intrude upon you two, but I like waking up with other people around. I'm not quite sure if I would be ok on my own yet." Clint felt relieved, he didn't want Q leaving yet, though it was good that the boy was opening up about his previous life a bit now.

The day passed by quickly after that. After getting home Q had sat down in the living room only to be assaulted by Cooper who was wearing his combat fatigues and then jumped on by Lilia who insisted that he helped her with her maths homework. He would be fine, it turns out that early school maths is quite easy.

Clint helped Laura make dinner, and set the table for the whole family. Phil and Nat weren't coming over that night.

After what felt like a long day for he finally flopped into bed.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

He was walking down the corridor. He remembered this place, the training centre... His training centre. She stood at the end of the corridor. With her smile that did nothing to conceal the evil that was clearly deep inside.

She stood and motioned for Q to come to her but Q shook his head. He wouldn't go, wouldn't go back to her. He had escaped and left, suddenly he was grabbed from behind

Q flung himself up in bed, he was covered in a cold sweat, a hand was holding his shoulder. He grabbed hold of it, swinging around, ready to break the attackers arm. But he quickly tensed as he realised that It was Clint who was holding him.

Q quickly let go and scrambled backwards. Clint looked with concerned eyes. "Do you want to talk about it? Your nightmare, I found you tossing and turning, covered in cold sweat."

Q shook his head, "it was just a bad dream, I'm fine." He looked up at Clint, half expecting him to run away but Clint just turned around and walked out the door, calling behind him

"Better hurry downstairs, breakfast is ready and training begins today."

It felt very different for Q, walking into shield HQ for the second time, walking forward with Clint and passing through the barriers using his temporary ID. Everyone around him shot him strange looks, but Q saw some glares as well. Not everyone knew who he was but the news would trickle out fast, and then he was going to be a hated man at shield.

Walking to the lift, they climbed quickly to a mid level floor in SHIELD. The elevator opened into a gym that was full of huge men and women, most of them at least twice Q's size and Q noticed that several wear lifting weights heavier than him. He realised that this is where the STRIKE teams that where based in New York liked to hang out.

They looked at him as he stepped out of the lift. At least in here Q knew that he wasn't welcome. There must have been four strike teams in the room and all of them knew what he was, at least that was what the glares indicated.

He quickly followed Clint as he crossed the room to a firing range that filled the back quarter of the floor.

"We need to start by seeing what you can do, I know your training must have been extensive but I've got to know if there are any gaps in it that I have to plug." Clint walked to a storage locker that was open against a wall, he reached in an pulled out a huge Glock 23 pistol. He threw it to Q who caught it nimbly.

Q checked the magazine and was surprised to see it loaded with live rounds. Clint obviously had put some trust into him, to let him run around with a loaded gun. He walked over to the firing range.

"You've got six shots, we can total your score at the end. 10 for a headshot 5 for a body and 1 forany other part of the target, you can start when you were ready."

Q had already started firing before Clint had finished talking, causing everyone nearby to jump, including Clint. Q had shot all 6 bullets in rapid succession, leaving no time to readjust or even to breath out.

Once the smoke had cleared, Clint pressed a button on a console which brought the target closer. Q was pleased with the reaction he got out of Clint, the agent hadn't hidden the look of surprise on his face at all. Q had scored a perfect 60 points, actually the bullet holes where close enough together that it was debatable if he had fired more than one or two shots, as the rest had just passed through the hole that had already been made.

Clint just laughed an turned away, "ha, Nat won't be pleased when she hears how you best her shooting record when she first tried that, come on we've still got plenty of other tests to run."

The rest of Clint's test pasted in much the same manner, with Q scoring maximum marks in each case. Q ran the obstacle course in record time, managed to score full marks on a theory paper set on gun mechanics and weapons handling and even fared quite well when he two of them did some one on one sparing. Though Clint really started enjoying himself when Q first met Strike team alpha.

Q and Clint had gone over to the gym section of the training floor to complete some basic strength exercises, Q was much stronger then he appeared to be, lifting almost 100kg which couldn't be far off of double it total weight. Q felt a bit uneasy as a group of Strike team members had peeled of from their normal exercises to watch his progress.

Q didn't realise but there was a extreme competing streak in these burly men and women and so when he started on the chin up bar, 4 others decided to join him. All of them where from strike team alpha, Q could see an alpha symbol on their workout shirts, and they al, most of had 100lbs on him.

Q was surprised when he heard Barton callout to them, "this isn't going to ends oh well for you Rumlow, even if you don't have any testosterone left in your body anyway." The only answer the biggest man gave, who Q realised must have been Rumlow, the leader of alpha team, was to take on hand off and start doing 1 arm chin ups.

Q wasn't about to let the challenge go unmet so he took one hand off the bar. After about 40 chin-ups, the other three members of Rumlow's team had given up but Q barely any exhaustion from him. At around sixty, Q started to feel as if his arm was becoming strained, how the hell is Rumlow still going.

75... 76... 77... 78...

Q could keep going for much longer, though his fingers where now starting to go numb from gripping the bar so tightly. He looked across as Rumlow, who now has a bead of sweat rolling down his cheek. Q looked around to see the whole floor had gone quiet to watch the battle that was going on.

95... 96... 97...

All of a sudden Rumlow fell of the bar and collapsed on the floor. Q smiled as he dropped down, looking around and the group of people who all had shocked looks on their faces, all except for Barton who was just sniggering.

"He's barely out of breath..."

"Rumlow just ran out of energy, how's that even happen..."

"Is this kid even real..."

Q just walked over to where Rumlow was slumped now, massaging his arm and breathing deeply. Q held out a hand and Rumlow reached up to grab it, pulling himself up on Q.

"Well kid" Rumlow's voice was hoarse from exhaustion, "I think I can say..."

Q didn't breath, he knew that if Rumlow didn't accept him, than none of the strike team would and he would be an outcast for-

"Welcome to shield" Rumlow interrupted Q's thoughts and caused a wave of relief and happiness to wash over Q as everyone around him started applauding and cheering.

Over the next week, Q's training progressed well. Clint was training him in the finer arts of hand to hand combat. He was progressing well on the knife combat and throwing, even though he had extensive training before SHIELD and Clint was also showing him how to be, in his words, "a sneaky little ninja."

This mainly involved Q trying to sneak up on Clint who was standing in the middle of a darkened room. Q quickly found out the Clint had some superhuman senses, being able to hear the faintest scuffle of his shoes or the quietest breath. Q was learning fast though, getting closer to Clint every time, until once being able to drop on Clint from above with out Clint even noticing him moving.

He was also getting to know some members of the strike teams as well, doing training sessions with them as well, mainly because Clint seems to think that they made good punching bags for sparring sessions, as none of their hand to hand combat skills were a match for Q. The news had gone around that Q was working for the good guys now, and people around thought that that was good enough after seeing the dedication that Q was putting in.

His favourite sessions had to be the staff training though. As Clint put it, "where ever we go there will always be a drain pipe or a lead tube or something of the sort which could be used as a weapon so it would be useful to know how to fight with them." Q especially liked it because it was the first it of training he was given that he had never done at the Red Room, it obviously not being that high on their priorities.

He was progressing well, almost mastering the art by the end of the week. The long pole of wood or metal just felt perfect in his hands, he could swing it very quickly around, taking out multiple people at once, and the extra reach it gave him was useful considering his small build. Unfortunately it had lent to Clint calling Q Triton, no matter how many times Q pointed out that triton used a trident, not a quarterstaff.

Q had to admit that he was having a lot of fun down in the labs as well. He never considered himself to be that clever but it turns out that his advanced mental processing caused his mind to accelerate his learning patterns. In other words, he was really smart. Some of the scientists down there were a bit hesitant to have him in their labs, unqualified as he was. But when after a while, they realised that he wasn't trying to interfere and was just genuinely interested to learn they accepted him quite openly. He especially enjoyed his time with Dr Kleinehart, who headed the weapon research devision, though the fun there might have been something todo with the passion for explosions.

Q loved the availability of resources shield had, and how easy they were to get a hold of in the weapons lab. It meant that he could make his passion project quite easily and with only a bit of help from Dr Kleinehart. Pulling out the metal tube, Q smiled because he couldn't wait to show Clint, and maybe beat the hell out of him with it as well.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Q walked into Barton's office with his new toy in his hand. It was a foot long metal tube that had several buttons down the length of it. The biggest central one that sat just under the palm of his right hand when holding it down extends both ends of the tube until he is holding a 6 foot staff. Some of the other features Q hadn't quite tested yet but he couldn't wait to see if they worked.

Q was about to start talking when Coulson walked into the office behind him.

"Are you two ready, you've got a mission" Q felt his heart race, this would be his first mission for shield, was he ready for it or is this just another test to see I'm he is loyal or not.

Coulson turned to Q and looked him in the eye, Q couldn't see deception in them. "Agent Jacobs, I have this for you." Coulson held out a leather wallet. Q took it and opened it to see a shield ID and a badge with the eagle crest burnished in gold. "Congratulations, agent Barton has spoken highly of your training. Are you ready for this though, your first mission?"

Q looked at the badge, he smiled as he looked back to Coulson. "Yes Sir, thank you sir, I'm ready to get out there and do some good for a change."

"What is the mission though?" Clint was rifling through a draw in his desk, pulling out a few knives and what looked like a frag grenade.

"Agent Romanov has supplied information about an illegal weapons shipment coming in, top of the line stuff, and guarded by at least 8 mercs who have special forces training. They will be accompanying 3 tech workers who are there to ready the ordinance. Now get down to outfitting because it's wheels upon 5, I will be coordination your strike from Control."

Clint immediately got up and started walking swiftly down the hallway, Q almost had to run to keep up. Once they reached their lockers, Clint dove into his to retrieve a metal recurve bow and quiver full of arrows. Q almost felt intimidated by the sight of Clint but knew that Clint was deadly accurate with his bow so he had nothing to fear from him.

"Where has Natasha been anyway? I haven't seen her for the last couple of weeks, not since my first day here." Q looked around for his own locker though he didn't think he had gotten one yet.

Clint just pulled him to a storage room, where he handed him a combat vest which provided some protection from bullets, though still being remarkably mobile. Q put a few knives in special slots and put his new staff in the special thigh holster he had made for it. He also grabbed the Glock 22 that he had been using in training sessions, holstering that safely.

"She said something about being Stark's wetnurse and she didn't sound happy about it, though I don't know how she hasn't killed Stark yet, apparently that he is the worst sort of person, especially after he got all high and mighty about being iron man."

Q remember seeing news footage of Iron Man, that suit of armour looked so awesome, especially after he got to see its proper combat uses. Stark did have a lot of experience building weapons and he did know how to make them look flashy.

"Yeah that doesn't sound to much fun for her, then again Stark might make her life harder for her, especially after Monaco." The footage had come through just a few days earlier and Q didn't feel sorry for Nat if she had to keep Stark safe from electric whips, though it had given Q a new idea for a button on his staff.

After the two of them had suited up, they made there way to the hanger, which was on the top floor of the building. A Quinjet was waiting for them with the pilot already finishing his preflight checks. The moment they both were on board the jet took off.

"You gonna teach me how to fly one of these things?" Clint laughed. The jet felt odd to Q, it ran almost silently,with inertial dampeners, something Q didn't even think existed outside of Sci-Fi films, which meant that the jet could preform advanced manoeuvres without the passengers feeling like they had done more than a small turn. "If you won't let me fly one of these, you have to let me at least drive the Lambo around at some point."

"Buy your own, shield might actually pay you at soon, though I'm not quite sure what we would put on your drivers license." Their banter in the back of the jet quietened as Coulson came over the radio.

"UAV scans show that there are 9 hostiles in the dock, 4 are patrolling on board the boat and the other 5 are patrolling the dock. You are to terminate them quietly, and then secure the tech workers and the small boat crew. Everything clear."

Clint was the first to speak, "I will take out the boat and secure the ordinance onboard, Q you've got the dock, you cool with that?"

Q nodded as he felt the Quinjet touch down. The ramp descended as Q and Barton quickly got off. They were at the edge of the port, containers to one side of them and a chain fence on the other

"Line 1 secured, Hawkeyes ready to engage."

"Line 1 secure, Triton ready to engage."

"Hey Q, try not to get shot on your first mission, sets a bad precedent." With that, Barton ran of into the darkness.

Q jumped up onto a container, running silently across the top of it, crouching down at the edge of one when he spotted the weapons crates.

"I have a visual, 3 guards around the crates, two more patrolling and two civilians inspecting the crates, so I have permission to engage?"

Coulson came over the radio, "permission granted, good luck Triton."

Q didn't even wait for Coulson to finish before jumping down from the container, landing in an alley between to crates. He crouched behind a big man before jumping up on his back, pulling his arm across the guards head and falling of his back, bringing his neck around in a quiet snap.

The guard slumped to the floor and Q moved on, turning a corner and taking out the other patrolling guard in a similar fashion before running forward into the open and pulling out his Glock and executing the three remaining guards around the case. One of the techs tried to play a hero, pulling out a hidden pistol and firing at Q, he felt a slight pinch on his right arm, but ignored it as he ran forward at top speed. The three techs had wide eyes with shock at the boy flying at them, but they didn't have long to be scared as each three was knocked cold in quick succession.

"Dock is secure, Clint you ok in there?" Q scanned the boat, trying to see what was going on inside.

"Almost, just give me a sec." Q fell back as an arrow imbedded itself in the container next to him. Barton zip lined down and landed deftly next to him.

Q scowled, "10 out of 10 for showing off, though your timings leave something to be improved."

"Yeah yeah smartarse, where are the weapons?" Q pointed at the three techies and the crates, two of the men where still out cold but the third was rolling around. Q walked over to him with Clint close behind.

Q kicked out at the man rolling on the floor, he groaned and curled up. Q pulled his arm and pushed him onto a crate. "Where are these weapons going, who ordered them?" Q's voice was deadly, like a viper about to strike.

The tech obviously valued his own life more than trade secrets so immediately stammered, "Hammer, Hammer Industry. He has something new, big drones who need guns, I don't know what they are for. Ok, just please leave me alone now..."

Q stepped away, pressing on his ear. "Coulson you read that? What are we dealing with?"

Coulson was quick on the reply, "Justin Hammer is Stark's closest competitor. The two have had a rivalry since school. This might be the link we needed to Ivan Vanko, that Russian whip guy from Monaco. Hammer is set to go on stage at Stark Expo in about ten minutes. Agent Romanov is already on the ground, but Triton, I'm sending you in as backup. You are ten minutes by jet, Hawk will deal with clean up from this raid. A STRIKE team will rendezvous with you there, you need to get moving now though."

Q started running to the jet, jumping up the ramp he yelled out, "get us in the air now," and the pilot didn't hesitate, taking off almost instantly. Q looked at the mission clock, he was ten minutes out meaning that Hammer would already be on stage when he arrived. He pulled out a communicator and found a number in the secure mission file and rang it.

"Hello? This is Pepper, who is this?" A loud voice came through the speaker, it sounded authoritative yet young, though she was almost screaming over the loud noises around her. Q guessed that she must be the sitting in the audience.

He gasped as he reached out to touch the screen, realising that that stinging on his arm was actually where a bullet cut into him. It was deeper than he thought though, his arm pumping out large amounts of blood. He grabbed a compression pad out from the medical box on board and wrapped it around his arm.

"Sorry Miss Potts, this is Agent Jacob, would it be possible to put your assistant on the phone, this is a very urgent matter" Q heard the phone scuffling as was handed over.

"Q what is it? What's gone wrong?" Nat sounded worried, she must have thought that someone had been hurt.

"We found something, we've linked Hammer to drone weapon programs and they are armed heavily..." Q was cut off by a loud scream.

"I know, Hammer just unveiled them" Q could barely hear her over the cheering.

"No up you don't understand, they were made by Venko, those drones are more dangerous than you could know. You need to get to Hammer Industries, that's the most likely place that the signal is broadcasted from, I'm coming into to pick up Hammer."

"Ok, I've got it, see you soon Q." The phone cut off as Q leaned out to look through the window. He could see the massive stadium where Hammer was just in time to see a figure flying out of the roof. It had to be Iron Man, nothing else was that small and that fast. At least Q thought that until he saw several other figures flying close behind him.

"Get me as close to the stadium as you can." Q patched himself through to the Strike team, "I want you on the ground, clear the area and protect civilians. Do not try to engage hostiles, they are armed and severely dangerous." Q was pleasantly surprised when he heard conformations through the radio, expecting the team to hesitate at him giving orders.

The Jet sat down just outside of the main doors and Q ran inside, a huge amount were running away from the stadium. Q pushed against the people, finally managing to run through a staff door which led backstage. From the explosions he could hear behind him as he ran, the machines were making a mess of Stark's expo.

He ran into an area backstage which was filled with computers and had two people in expensive suits yelling at each other. They had to be Pepper Potts and Hammer. Q ran forward pulling out his gun as he ran.

"Step away from Miss Potts Hammer" the man reeled at the voice turning to see Q walking towards him with his gun out. "You are under arrest for extortion, robbery, gun smuggling and terrorism."

Hammer just smirked, as if he saw the funny side, "what, you can't seriously blame me for this, I've got nothing to do with these drones going wild"

"Can it Hammer,I just came from the docks. I found some quite interesting things there, though I dare say that they won't be falling into your hands anytime soon." Hammer's smile faulted, realising the game was up he turned to make a run for it but Pepper stuck out her leg causing him to fall.

"Nicely done Miss Potts" Q smiled at her as tied Hammer's hands together with a bit of wire from a computer. He turned to a man sitting at a computer, "Are you the drone operator?" When the man nodded Q motioned for him to get up and Q sat down at the computer. He pulled out his communicator and keyed it into the frequency.

"Sir do you read my, I'm at drone control but it's Venko used his own language to make the program, it's also in Russian by the way." Q was furiously typing on a keyboard, windows flashing by on it.

Coulson's voice came through the speaker, "can you stop them from there?"

"No sir, I've only got access to basic functions from here, Ivan has the Hammer techs out of the loop."

Pepper lent in close over his shoulder, "aww Phil, it's good to hear your voice. You know where Hammer's office is? That's where Venko must be."

It was Q who replied, "Agent Romanov... Er I mean Natalie is already on route, she should be in by now." Q pressed another button on his communicator, accessing the frequency Nat and Stark were on.

"Romanov, do you read me, are you in Hammer yet? Is Venko there?"

He heard Nat's voice strained over the radio, "gimme a minute." Q heard the sound of a man being chocked out and then defiantly the sound of electricity and two more men's screams. "I'm in, no sign of Venko though."

"Good, you needed to find his computer and give me access to the drone controls" Q waited for less than a minute before his computer flashed up with more screens, he had access to ten drones. His hands started flying across the keyboard again, trying to crack the crazy Russian security that Venko had put in place.

Pepper lent in again across his shoulder, "Sooo, it's Agent Romanov now is it? I suppose I'm not surprised, your resume really was to good, and nobody really speaks Latin."

"solum cum amicis meis epularer" Q smirked whilst Pepper scowled. Q`s latin was excellent, it came from reading so many books in the language as he was growing up

"so you are just a miniature of Natalie then Agent Jacobs? i take it that is your real name or are you to much of a spy to even have a proper name?" Q smirked again from hearing Pepper called Nat Natalie.

Q watched through the onboard cameras of the drones as Stark and his sidekick steadily took out the drones one by one, ending in a massive showdown where Stark ended up using a massive laser to cut through a dozen of the robots at once. Q lost the feed after that and turned to face Pepper. he heard through his communicator had secured the area and were awaiting orders.

"Another group in here to bring in, I want them in holding cells within the hour.'' Q knew that most o the techs were innocent but they had helped a mad man and a Russian almost kill a lot of people so a night in a cell might do them some good.

Suddenly Starks voice came through the comms. "Venko is dow, i repeat Venko is down, but hes rigged all the machines to blow, everyone needs to get outa there now."

Q swivelled back around, able to see on his screen that the drone where indeed set to blow. he furiously mashed into the keyboard, typing commands so quickly that his hands started to blur. "Oh no you don't, I'm not letting you low up today."

A small timer starting at 10 appeared in the top left hand corner of the screen and was quickly counting down. With half a second left Q finally broke through and the countdown stopped. Q leaned back in his chair whistling.

"Nicely done boy scout." Tony Stark, wearing an Iron Man suit was standing right behind him.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Q stood up as he turned around, holding out his hand for Stark. "It's a pleasure to meet you Mr Stark, I'm Agent Jacobs"

"Whats Fury doing letting boy scouts into SHIELD, I though you lot were meant to be all sneaky spy's and stuff. What do you do, put cameras in the cookie boxes?" Q now could see why Clint had mentioned about Nat killing Stark.

"Just ignore him, he's always an as-" Pepper was cut of as Stark swept her off of her feet and kissed her. Q smirked at the surprised look on Pepper's face, this was obviously not the norm.

"I'll just... um go wait outside." Q grabbed Hammer, lifting him up and pushing him out the front door. The Strike team had already gone back to base, not wanting to confront the media which was just arriving so Q handed over Hammer to the NYPD that were waiting, ignoring the odd looks they gave him, even after he flashed his SHIELD badge.

His communicator bleeped and he groaned. "What is it?" Stark and Pepper had come outside to find him.

"No rest for the wicked, I've been ordered to escort you two home to Malibu."

"Yeah we really don't need that, Pepper bring the plane around." Stark just waved his hand through the air, Q couldn't decide whether he was joking or not.

"I'm sorry Mr Stark, I've been ordered to take you both home on our SHIELD Quinjet. Im sure you will find it perfectly comfortable. If you would step this way please." Q walked over to where the Quinjet was parked, feeling sorry for his Pilot who now had another two or three hour flight ahead of him.

Once the two passengers where inside the Jet immediately took off. Pepper looked over at Q.

"So, Agent Jacobs, how did you get started at SHIELD, and if I might add so young as well, you cat be more that 16?" Pepper looked interested, Q couldn't tell if she was actually interested or just polite.

"Please Miss Potts, call me Q, it stands for Quentin but nobody ever calls me that. Im sorry though, how I was recruited is classified. All I can say is that I have a... Unique skill set and SHIELD helped me to put it to good use, and I'm only 15, my birthday isn't till next week."

"Well Fury has you trained well doesn't he, perfect little spy, won't say a word." Tony's voice was rude but that might just come from him being a billionaire, used to getting what he wants.

He was fiddling with the arm of his suit, looking at the firing mechanism of a missile that would come out of his arm.

"If I might ask what the problem is with the firing mechanism sir?" Tony Just scowled at Q

"I doubt you would understand, its just that a basic electromagnet which triggers the servo to move the arm also warps the metal around this fir-"

"and you need to figure out how to stop the polarising effect because it could mess with the propulsion system. All you need is a small circuit in there that will reverse the electron flow and neutralise the polarising effect" Tony's eyes turned from annoyance to confusion and then laughter before turning to Pepper.

"Can we keep him, pretty please" Q and Pepper both laughed. Q seemed to have won a seal of approval from Tony Stark, though he wasn't quite sure how good a sign that was.

The rest of the flight went by Tony and Q talking about improvements that could be made to the suit whilst Pepper was working away on her phone. To Q it sounded like she had just bought most of Hammer Industries but he may have been wrong.

They landed on the driveway of Starks house not long after. "Don't be a stranger boy scout, I'm going to get yo out to Stark tower New York after its finished, top ten floors, all R&D, you would love it."

"Thanks for everything you've done, I don't know where we would be if you at Nat hadn't shown up like you did."

The two passengers quickly got off. Q was surprised when Coulson got on though.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were still in New York" Coulson just smiled at him.

"I came to pick you up, we are being reassigned, I hope you like the desert." Q just sighed.

Once the jet was back in the air, Q turned to Coulson. "What's up, I mean, I do love a sunny field trip but I would've like five minutes to sit down between saving the world."

To Q's credit, he did manage to make Coulson smile. "We have an 0-8-4 in the desert." Q raised an eyebrow, "it means theres an unidentified object, meaning possibly alien in origin."

"I hope thats a joke Coulson, I really don't need to deal with an aliens" Sadly, Coulson just shook his head.

Q slumped back in his chair. The tiredness from not sleeping for about 24 hours was finally catching up to him. Q also realised that the pad around his arm had come lose and he had been losing blood for a while. "Coulson... could you... could take a look at" Q slumped against the wall, darkness covering his eyes.

A soft beeping noise was the first thing Q heard when he came back to consciousness, he felt warm in a bed, though he smelt disinfectant all around him. His eyes felt heavy so a part of him was really tempted to just drift back off to sleep, but he knew he had a job to do so he did open his eyes.

He sat up and looked around, he was clearly in a hospital ward. His arm was aching, when he looked down at it he saw a thick bandage wound close around it. He head was also aching as well, he guessed that he had hit his head against the wall of the Jet when he fell asleep.

He groaned as he sat up, looking around he pulled out a needle that went into his arm. It only felt like a small prick but it still stung after he pulled it out. A machine on the wall which bleeped a few times when he pulled out the wires, which caused someone to come rushing in. The doctor was a thirtyish year old lady who had a bit of a permanent worried face on.

"You shouldn't be up and moving yet, you've only had about four hours sleep yet, you need to lay down some more." She tried to push him back to bed, but Q resisted a bit.

"Where is Coulson, he said something about a 084?"

"It's three in the bloody morning kid, get back to bed or I will make sure that your next physical examination will have a twenty mile run in it." with that Q relented and allowed himself to be frogmarched back to bed, with the doctor muttering about those bloody agents who always get shot then try to run around with giant holes in their arms. "Are you going to stay in there or do I have to sedate you?"

"No ma'am, I'll stay in here, I promise." Q shot her a cheeky smile but the doctor didn't pick up on that, she just smiled and muttered about him having good manners.

The moment Q's head hit the pillow he fell back to sleep.

He was walking back along the corridor. He was closer to the door now. The Mistress of the Red Room was standing at the end of the corridor. She beckoned to him again, pulling him forward. She wanted him to go through the door at the end of corridor. He wouldn't go, he would never go through it.

"You are more than the rest, we made you more than the rest. They are marble... You are Iron sent of as a present from America" she laughed again at him again, as if she was laughing at a joke.

He woke up with a start. His bed felt cold again, he was covered in cold sweat, thankfully the ward was empty. He was worried that he might have hurt someone if they were near.

He got up quickly, lacing up his trainers that had been pulled off and thrown near his bed. He ran down the ward, trying to leave his pain behind him. When he got through the door at the end of the ward, the same doctor lady stood up from behind her desk.

"There we go, you must feel better now." She stood up and and walked over to him. She pulled the bandage of his arm. "Good, its closed up nicely. I'm just gonna put another pad on," she pulled another pad out from her desk and pressed it firmly against his arm. "You are young and healthy, it will probably heal in a week, just don't get any dirt into ok. The pad is waterproof so you should be ok. You might want to go freshen up before you go find Coulson, you look a bit of a mess. The barracks is the next building along."

Q walked outside. He wasn't ready for the glaring light from the bright sun. He'd never been in American desert and the heat hit him immediately. He had been trained to run for long times out there though, part of his training. He had been forced to run for almost two days in the Middle Eastern desert once, and he was shot at if he appeared to slow down.

Q looked around. SHIELD had worked fast, they had set up an almost complete army base overnight, except all the buildings were prefabs. SHIELD obviously wasn't planning on staying for long. he walked into the next door barracks, finding a room filled with bunks and a few sinks at the end. A door to one side is open showing a bathroom with toilet stalls and a few showers. Another door is closed at the wall nearest the door, Q correctly guesses that it's a storage cupboard. He goes in an finds a SHIELD top and sweatpants that were clearly meant for him, being half the size of the other clothes hanging up. At least someone had thought ahead for this mission.

Q grabbed his clothes and went to take a shower, he came out of the bathroom to grab his top and was startled to see Clint waiting in the corner. "Coulson didn't say that you were assigned to this as well"

"Its good to see you to, though I can tell that you didn't listen to me when I said not to get shot. Im here because Fury needed someone he trusted on this one, its one of those missions filled with freakyshit." Q turned around to put on his shirt. "Q what are those across your back"

Shit, he saw

Q looked in the mirror to see the thin white lines that went down his back, each one perfectly spaced below the last.

"They were just motivation to do better, that's all." Clint just shook his head

"You know sometimes I forget about your upbringing. Have you stopped having the nightmares yet?" Clint looked knowingly at Q who wouldn't meet his eye. "I would be surprised if they had, I still don't think Nat's have completely gone away. Come on your gonna want to see this, this is really what SHIELD is like."

Q pulled on his top and followed Barton out the door, "At least its nice to know that Fury doesn't trust me." Walking to the centre of their little village. They walked through a mobile laboratory and came out into a covered section of ground. Lying harmlessly on the ground was a gigantic hammer. Bigger than anything Q had ever seen. Coulson walked out next to it whilst Q was still staring.

"Our best guess about where it came from is the the sky to be honest. Suddenly appeared after a thunderstorm. I want to say the two re linked but nothing has been confirmed at this time." Q walked closer to it.

"Why is it still here, why have you not hidden it away in Area 51 yet?"

Clint laughed whilst Coulson explained, "try to pick it up." Q did, pulling on it with all his strength, but the hammer wouldn't move. Clint laughed even harder at Q's straining.

"Have you got a crane in here, I bet that would do the job."

"We had a Quinjet try to pull it out, and it still didn't budge." Q felt shocked at hearing that. What could never be move

"So what are we going to do about it then?"

"There are a few scientists in a nearby town, they are here to research the abnormal lights in the sky, but we believe that they might have found something about this."

"Sounds fun, there just one thing I need before we leave though. Where do you lot get your fancy sunglasses?" The three of them laughed as they walked over to the cars.

Coulson got into a big Chevy and Q got into Barton's car. Dust flew against the windscreen as they drove along. When they reached the town, Q felt as if he had stepped back into the 1950's the town clearly not progressing beyond that. He pulled Clint's spare pair of shades from the glove box before getting out. He looked around, seeing only a small dinner, a pet store and a few other shops.

The agents walked halfway down the street before stopping at a house halfway down. It was bigger than most, looking open inside. No one was home, none of the lights were on and there was no car parked outside. Clint did a circuit of the house.

"Team is coming in now to sweep the place, Clint, you better get back to base to keep an eye on that hammer, we have no idea who could be searching for it." Coulson's voice was full of authority, clearly used to giving orders and having them carried out.

"Ok then, let's see what we have in here" said Q, his voice excited. He walked to the door before pushing it open, no one had bothered to lock it. Q heard the team arrive outside and Coulson was wrangling them to strip the place an take all research.

Q started to look around. There was a surprisingly good lab inside the building, Q had trouble recognising some of the machinery because it looked custom made though he did manage to start up one of the computers in the corner.

Easily bypassing the security he started looking through the files that related to the thunderstorm. Oddly there was very little data surrounding the event, the science team must keep their recent data in another area.

The SHIELD team started pulling machines away and loaded them up into the vans, making sure that they left nothing that might provide data about the hammer. Q was broken out of his reading when three people who were clearly not from SHIELD came running in. There were two young women with an older man.

Q walked over to place himself between the research and the people he guessed to be the science team, based on their horrified looks about their lab being torn apart.

"What the hell do you think you are doing, you can't just waltz in here and take apart my lab, this is stealing and my data is all here. All of this is my life work, you can't take it." the anger in the woman's voice wasn't concealed with rage burst forwards from her.

"Miss Foster I assume," Q remembered the name from the files he had found, "You work is being confiscated as a matter of state security, you lab equipment will hopefully be returned i due time, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave."

'How dare you take this away from me, this is my life in this room. I made half of that lab equipment myself and all my data is contained on them and in that book." Jane motioned to a book that was sitting on a counter top. Q had overlooked it before and so was glad when she pointed it out. Q motioned to it and one of the clean up team came and grabbed it. "NO!" Jane made a grab for it and Q had to push her back.

"Miss, this is your last chance to leave peacefully, I wont give you another warning." Q was glad when Jane was pulled out of the house by the older man with the younger woman issuing threats about writing to the president. Q walked back to where Coulson was sitting, realising that he had watched the whole ordeal.

"Thanks for leaving me to deal with that, having me feel bad for destroying their life's work is how I love to start every day." Q could hear the sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"I thought you handled it quite well, you know why we have to take the research. We are much better suited to work with it and we can't have civilians running around a SHIELD investigation. Q just nodded before walking over to one of the vans that had already been loaded up. He yelled back to Coulson, "There's nothing more I can do here, i'm gonna go back to base and start looking through this data."

Q hopped into the drivers seat of one of the vans and started driving back to the temporary base set up. He found two tech workers who he ordered to start unloading the van and synching the computers. In the mean time, Q walked over to what he hoped was a canteen to grab some food. He found Clint inside, grabbing food Q went to sit next to him.

"I feel really bad about what I just did, I basically ruined someone's life work."

Clint just laughed at him, "Fury asked you to kill four people just two days ago and you were fine with that but now that you go and hurt someone's feeling you have to feel a little bad."

"Killings different, it was easy compared to how I feel now. I guess when your whole life it based around doing one thing, everything about it becomes easier." Q started eating the soup that he had been served, it didn't taste half bad considering that they were in the middle of the desert.

"You can't let yourself see you that way, you were meant for more that killing Q, anyone can see that. You just have to let yourself believe that. If you want do do something else Q, all you need is to walk outside and do it, without letting anything stop you." Q felt much better after Clint gave his pep talk.

"Where did you learn to be a good motivational speaker?" Q quipped sarcastically.

"Just being around Coulson for more that ten minutes, you tend to learn a speech or two" Clint's watch beeped and he stood up, "that will be Agent Lee asking why I haven't relieved him from guard duty an hour and a half ago, gotta go see you later though." Clint run out the door, hoping to get to his post before Coulson came back.

Q made his way slightly slower to the lab by the hammer, where he looked through the data that the lab rats had come up with since he left. He was still annoyed that Coulson had made it his job to wrangle all the scientists and tech specialists that SHIELD had flown in but he enjoyed being back to work in a lab so that at least made up for it a little bit.

Opening the top file, Q started to look through the data that came back surrounding the hammer, before turning to look through the lab. He had three doctors, all who had PHD's in varying master arts of science and yet none of them could explain what that hammer was made of.

Looking back down at the folder, Q called out, "The hammer is made up of a metal unknown, possibly not an element from this earth. Who ran this test?"

A middle age man, who appeared to be balding early and going grey, stepped forward who Q thought was called Terrence Smith. He seemed a little flustered that Q had called out his research, "Sir, I am sorry if you don't like it, but that data is correct. That hammer is made out of some element we have never encountered before, which may have something to do with out inability to lift it. I may have a theory about that though sir, if you would look at the markings along the side of it." Terrence pulled a picture from the side showing weird lines etched into the hammer, "These are runes that date back to Nordic times, we've never had a set that was this perfectly preserved before. I am willing to hypothesise that this may... well sir it may be the Mjolnir, the ancient hammer of Thor."

Q raised an eyebrow, "Terrence, that means that this hammer would have come from what? Heaven? We've got to try and stay grounded in reality" Terrence's eyes fell after hearing Q, "though, just incase your right, start translating those runes. I want a full translation by tomorrow." Terrence seemed happy again at his idea being indulged and he walked off to start his work.

Q spent the rest of his day working through the research that he had taken from the laboratory. Jane Foster had been close to something, he just needed to work out what. Before long he realised how late it was getting with it being pitch black outside. The other scientists had clocked off but Q had stayed behind to finished off his work.

He was just about to open a file that documented the readings from the thunderstorm when all the alarms on the base started sounding. Q's communicator started crackling.

"There is a hostile on the perimeter, he's taken down Riley and Thomas" the voice sounded scared. Q was glad that he had his staff on him. He brought up the cctv cameras around the base onto his communicator, just in time to see three more agents be taken down by the man. He was massive, with raging muscles and arms about the same size as Q's body. He moved with the speed of a man half his size, he had to be well of six and a half feet. He clearly showed some advanced military training as he ripped through the rest of the security task force.

Q realised that he was coming his way. He must be here for the hammer. Q slunk back into the shadows to wait for him to come through the lab. A second after the man had completely stepped into the room, Q jumped up onto his back and locked his arm around his throat, using all his strength to try and knock the guy out. The man twisted around, trying to throw Q off but Q held on for dear life, kneeing the man in the kidney's. The big man let out a roar of pain, grabbing Q by the collar from over his shoulder and throwing him across the room.

Q hit the wall with a sickening crunch, his head felt like it had just come off but Q somehow found himself back on his feet, his training taking over from his brain. He almost felt excited when he pulled out his staff, getting to use it properly for the first time. The tube extended to its full length in his hands and there was a minor standoff between the two.

"Remove yourself from my path and no more harm will befall you." The man had an accent that Q couldn't place, but his speech sounded like it came from the 19th century.

"I can't let you take that hammer, it's dangerous and could be used as a weapon." Q thought he sounded threatening but the big man only laughed before lunging at him. Q brought the staff up, feeling as the man tackled him, but Q pushed him off with the staff and flipped back to his feet, bring the staff down to hit the man on the floor, but the big man rolled away and got back to his feet. Q lashed out, swinging the staff around but the man managed to block it with his forearm so Q switched and went for his knee. A satisfying crunch could be heard but the man just kicked the staff away.

Q decided that now would be a good time to try out some of the features he had included in the staff. Pressing the button closest to his palm, the last foot of both ends of his staff started humming as they became live with electricity. Q turned down the power though, not wanting to kill the man. Q swung again with the staff, managing to catch the man in the side, where he grimaced from the voltage going through him. Q looked shocked, that much power should have knocked him out, his staff was almost as powerful as a taser at this level and yet the man had just taken the hit.

Q tried to thrust forward, a hit to the face would surely incapacitate him, however the man managed to dodge to the side and Q realised that he had made a terrible mistake. His right arm was thrust forward, as it was holding further up his staff and the big man stepped around his staff with speed that rivalled his own. Before Q could pull back his arm, the big struck out at his arm and Q heard a loud crack. His arm exploded in pain, Q knew that it was broken and as he was turned around from the moment given to him by the man's punch he felt a push in the bag which sent him flying again, landing painfully in a corner.

Q saw black and then nothing and then red and then black, his vision going haywire as he went through a world of pain. His arm felt like it was on fire and his back and head were defiantly bruised badly. His whole body ached and he cradled his arm against his chest. He was brought back to reality though when he heard a roar from the hammer. Q pulled himself up, using the table for support. Using the wall to lean on, he pulled himself forward until he could see that the noise had actually come from the man. He looked like he had tried to pick it up and failed, he was now slumped over on his knees yelling to the sky.

"Why, let me have it. You have taken everything from me!" The man had great pain in his voice, he sounded as if his whole life had been destroyed only to be left with the pieces to put back together. Q grabbed a wrench of the table, why did they even have a wrench in here. Slowly walking forward he silently snuck up to behind the man.

I really hope this works

The man didn't seem to even notice that where he was, so Q hit him around the head with the wrench he had grabbed. It made a crunching sound as it connected with the man's temple and he was knocked forward by the blow. Q was happy to see that he had been knocked out.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Q pulled himself back to his communicator, "Hostile is down sir, requesting security personnel and maybe a doctor down here." With that Q slumped down against the wall.

The security team arrived thirty seconds later, they looked in bad shape as the man had ripped through about half of them. Coulson, Clint and the same doctor who had treated him earlier arrived about a minute later.

The doctor immediately went to work on him, "You couldn't even make it one blasted day without getting yourself messed up even worse than you already were could you? You need to get back to the infirmary, I will have a proper look at you there."

Coulson and Clint half carried Q back to the infirmary after wrapping his arms around their necks. Everything felt painful for Q as he was lane down in the infirmary. The doctor gave him a shot of something which got rid of most of the pain but also sent him off to sleep.

When he woke up, his whole body started aching, just to remind him that you shouldn't fight six for six, giant MMA masters. He felt a pad on the back of his head where he must have cut his head and he looked at his arm to see a green cast wrapped around it. Two this were written on the cast. The first was written in a swirly handwriting which he guessed was the doctor's which said, "no sneaking out, come see me in my office first." Q smirked at that before reading the second which was in Clint's hand. "Come see me and C in the control block once you wake up."

Q sighed, realising that he had to get back to work even if his body did protest. He walked out the front door of the ward, glad that his legs felt a bit better than last night. The doctor walked told him to wait a minute. Q saw that she was checking the pulse of a man who had been on the security team who still seemed to be out cold.

The doctor walked over to Q and quickly started berating him, "what where you even thinking, taking on that brute alone, you should be glad that he only broke your arm and not your head, which reminds me," she reached across and ripped the pad off his head, and feeling like she took half his hair with it, "your head has healed up fine, you've got some minor bruising on your back but your arm means that you will be off any physical activity for at least a month, that's the doctors orders ok." Q didn't understand how she managed to say that all in a single breath, maybe she is a robot, that would be a fun story to tell. When he only meekly nodded to her rant she seemed nullified, happy that he wasn't going to argue with her.

"Can I go know though Doc? I've gotta go report in." She just nodded at him and Q sped walked out before she could berate him even more.

He walked out into the sunshine, surprised to see so many people running about is early in the morning. Apparently Coulson had whipped everyone up a bit after their security snafu. Q walked over to the control centre, using his ID card to get in. He found Clint and Coulson inside, they seemed to be annoyed at eachother.

"What did I miss, has he woken up yet?" The both turned around to see Q, they looked a little surprised to see him but both had proud looks on their faces.

"Nah, you really did a number on him Q, still out cold. Though I've got to say that was some top notch ninja shit back there, you almost came out on top." Q felt glad that at least one person felt like he did the right thing, though almost coming out on top pushed it a bit.

"No help from you though, what were you and Coulson doing? Twiddling your thumbs?" Clint just scowled at Coulson after that.

"Someone decided that it would be a good idea to not engage the hostile and see what he did with the hammer. We didn't realise that you were still in his way until after he had knocked you around a bit." Coulson didn't say anything but Q could tell that Coulson felt bad about Q getting hurt, the worry lines on his forehead had gotten worse.

"Ahh it's all in a day's work, though but I think today's about to get better, he's waking up." The other two men snapped around to see on the monitor that the big man was indeed waking up. They had put him in a room with three concrete walls and a thick pain of sliding glass allowed for access. Q wasn't surprised that SHIELD had included a cell in their temporary base.

Coulson rushed out to start talking to the prisoner.

"How are you feeling, still a little shaken up from that fight, to be honest I was just bigging you up, that man had some advanced training and looked like he could rip you in half." Clint looked a bit concerned with him now.

"He packs a nasty punch, and he barely seemed phased when I used my shock stick."

Clint pulled out his staff from a pocket, "I grabbed it for you after the fight, that's a nice little weapon you've got there, I'm not sure I even want to know what other things it can do."

Q shushed him as Coulson arrived at the man's cell. He leaned in so could hear better.

"Where did you get training like that, Iran? Pakistan? South America? You must be special forces with training like that." The big man didn't make a sound. Only stared Coulson down.

"What do you know about the Hammer, why couldn't you lift it?" The man still didn't make a sound

"You know, we will eventually find out." Coulson walked out of the cell. Q and Clint turned to him as he walked back into the control room.

"Sir there is something very weird here, that hammer. I think I can say that it's not human in origin, or at least there is someone out there with the ability to forge metals we've never seen before." Coulson raised an eyebrow.

"I will explore every other option before I say that this is a possible alien incursion." Coulson was interrupted by a knock on the door. Two guards escorted a man Q recognised from the lab into the control room. Dr Erik Selvig.

Coulson walked over to him and shook his hand.

"He claims to know the prisoner sir, insisted that we bring him to you." One of the guards said with a military accent.

"How do you know our friend, Dr?" Q could hear a dangerous tone in Coulson's voice. They were dealing with a threat of a possible alien, so Coulson was not gonna take shit from anyone today.

"Oh right, he is... He is just a colleague, Dr Donald Blake. He got rather upset you see when you took all of our equipment and got the stupid idea to take it back. He got rather drunk I think and then he ended up here." The nervousness could be easily heard in Selvig's voice. Q could instantly tell he was lying and Coulson picked up on it to.

"And can you explain how he took down a squad of highly trained personnel?" Coulson was enjoying this, toying with the doctor.

"Steroids! Can't get enough of them you see." Selvig reached nervously for his collar and wouldn't meet Coulson's eyes.

"Ok, that seems fine by me. Pearson, can you escort Dr Selvig to Dr Blake, I'm sure he would like to get out of here, especially after that hard knock on his head." Q felt shock course through him, Coulson was letting the go! Why? Anyone could see that they were lying. Selvig mirrored that shock, he never expected it to be that easy

After Selvig had been escorted away, Q spoke up, "sir, is that really correct? I don't think you need me to tell you that he was lying."

"And he wouldn't tell us the truth, so the easiest way to find out what they want is to let them try and do it." Q realised what Coulson meant and felt foolish.

Clint said quickly, "I'll go follow them." But Q quickly interceded.

"No, we need someone here who can actually fight incase any other interested parties show up, I'll follow them."

"But the doc put you-"

"I'll be fine, what's the worst that can happen?" Q had his wild grin on. Clint just scowled before turning to Coulson,

"You can't let him go out there, he's got a broken arm for christ's sake." Clint sounded desperate now.

"If Agent Jacobs feels that he is able to complete his mission then I see no problem, but just remember Agent, you are not going out there are Triton, meaning I don't want to see any fighting. Clear?"

"Crystal sir, I'll be fine." Clint just sighed

"You had to jinx it didn't you" Clint said with sarcasm dripping off of him. Q jus ruffled his hair as he walked past and out the door. Q made his way back to the barracks where he found some civilian clothing in his size, laughed a bit at some of the men in their moaning about headaches from the intruder's punches and cleaned some of the dirt from his fight with the intruder off his face.

He went to the car pool and grabbed the keys for one of their SUV's and drove it along into town. He parked on the outskirts of town, behind an abandoned building which looked like it was falling apart. He wished he had worn something a little cooler as the sun was bearing down on him as he had grabbed a thick tee shirt and cargo shorts. He walked through the town on the lookout for the doctor and the man who claimed to be Dr Blake. He finally spotted their car outside the dinner and walked inside, being careful not to catch the attention of Selvig and Blake as he sat down in a booth. A waitress took asked what he wanted and he ordered some pancakes.

He kept an eye on the two men who were talking, he overheard snippets of their conversation, it sounded like Selvig was trying to get the man to leave and Blake was agreeing to go.

It didn't take long for the waitress to come back but when Q reached into his pocket for some money another voice answered the waitress, "a warrior should never pay for his victory meal, here good lady, I will pay for this meal."

Welllllll shit

The big man slumped into the booth opposite and Dr Selvig stood next to him. Q tried to look unfazed, just starting to eat his pancakes.

"Well somebody needed to check up on you, a mean swing like you've got could hurt someone." The big man laughed.

"Coming from the tiny human who managed to best me in combat. I would ask who watches the watcher but I fear I wouldn't get an answer. From where I come from you would honoured as a champion. The halls would ring with the victory songs of your triumphs." Q couldn't tell if the man was taking the piss but what he said needled at him.

"And where do you come from, because I don't believe that your name is Donald Blake?" Q looked at Selvig who just shook his head after grinning sheepishly.

"Aha, I see I can not keep the truth from this one." Q could see Selvig shake his head out of the corner of his eye, "My name is Thor, son of Odin and the once crown prince of Asgard." All of a sudden Thor's face fell.

"What do you mean by once?"

"In my haste and foolhardiness I cause a war between my people of Asgard and the frost Giants of Jotenheim and for that my father had me banished, but I fear he is dead now and my brother, Loki, is the king."

"So that hammer out in the desert, that really is Mjolnir and that's why no one can lift it." It was Dr Selvig who chimed in

"The legends say that only someone worthy may have the power of Thor, Dr no offence."

"None taken, my father has shown me that it is true that I am no worthy of the power, not until I prove myself of it again." Thor looked out thoughtfully.

Selvig cut across his revelry, "we must really be going now. Darcy and Jane will be waiting for us." Selvig pulled Thor out of the booth and the pair of them drove away. Q guessed that they were going back to their lab, or at least he hoped they were because that's where he would go to find them. He gave them a five minutes head start before retrieving his car to drive to the lab. He wished he could go back and report to Coulson, but he didn't have any more proof that the word of a man who might be completely insane.

Q parked his car a couple of streets away from the lab, grabbing a backpack out of the car and walking the rest of the way. Once he was opposite the lab, he climbed to the roof of the gas station that was opposite the lab. Once he was on top on the roof he lay down prone against the edge and pulled out a pair of binoculars from his pack. Scanning the building with the IR mode he could see four people inside, defiantly the scientist but he couldn't hear what they said. He pulled out a little tube that had a trigger on it. It was a miniature sound bug, about the size of a pea but flat. He could fire it at the window from up to fifty yards away and it would turn the slight vibrations of the glass to muffled speech.

Waiting for a far to drive past to mute the sound of the bug hitting the window, he fired and hit it squarely in the middle, the best place to try and extract sound from. If one of the scientists was it they would just think it was some dirt or grit. Q then pulled out a mini notebook and plugged some headphones into it so he could listen in on what they were talking about.

It was pretty muffled but he managed to catch some parts of the conversation.

"I think it was SHIELD you know, they could..."

"What is this shield you speak..."

"Oh. I read about them once they are... super spy's basically..."

Their chatter carried on for a while, discussing what they should do to get their equipment back,some one still suggested writing to the president.

The sun was setting pretty quickly and soon it was dark. Q felt cold sitting up on his petrol station but he just wrapped his jacket around him tighter. Soon Thor and Jane came outside to sit on the roof of their van. They lit a fire and started to talk, Q didn't need a bug this time, the sound carrying across the road.

"There are nine realms out there, this one is Midgard a realm of humans. I come from Asgard, where my people live for hundreds of your years..."

Q suddenly felt like he shouldn't be listening in on this conversation, it sounded private. He started fiddling with his finger tips and tapping on his computer, writing out a report for Coulson before something caught his attention.

"How did someone hit you that hard to leave that huge bruise, I mean we hit you with a car and you had barely a scratch on you." Q realised that they were talking about him. Part of him wanted to ignore them more but a stronger part of him felt curious about what they would say.

"That boy was a warrior, you should have seen him. He fought with the ferocity of a bilgesnipe and must have been a head shorter than me. Though I fear I may have injured him back, his arm was covered in a green rock of some kind." Q felt happy to hear his assessment.

"Do you mean that young agent who took our research, how does SHIELD let in someone so young, he couldn't be older than sixteen. And what do you mean green rock... Did you break his arm?" Jane looked shocked at Thor

"It was during the heat of battle, I can not say what I do once the fighting starts." Q felt an urge to go down there and beat Thor's head in again.

Jane just scowled at him, "and here I thought you were all high and mighty and you were just breaking a kids arm."

"I would like to point out how he hit me with a metal tool not long after, I would say that we are even."

They sat in silence for a long time after that, Thor occasionally pointing out a star configuration. Late in the evening the pair went back inside and decided to go to sleep. Q tried to watch the house for a little bit longer but tiredness soon caught up with him to.

He was closer to the door than ever. The Mistress standing at the end of the hall. The corridor was in better focus, he could see the wood panels on the walls and here the distant voices.

"Come, your destiny awaits you... Come"

The voices were getting louder behind him, becoming harsher and harsher.

They were screaming, right behind him... Screams

Q woke with a start, he realised that he had overslept, the sun was far higher than it should be for when he usually woke. He knew something was wrong. People were screaming and running. He could hear explosions and an odd sound like a...

Laser beam

The thing was huge. It looked to be made of metal and was at least ten feet tall. As Q watched it's face opened up and a laser came out of it. It was humanoid with arms and legs which looked ready to crush people

Q jumped down from the roof, he had to get people away from that thing. He stopped at the sidewalk because there was already someone in the street. Thor was watching.

Q heard Jane yell "what are you doing, you have to get away." Thor just ignored her though.

"Loki, look at me" Thor's booming voice carried across the entire town. The metal monster turned to face him. That was his brother. No that must be a drone or something, these guys aren't made of metal... probably.

"Listen to me, you leave these people alone, you can take me. I don't care any more but you don't destroy this town." Q thought that it was a bit late for that, half the town had already been levelled.

The monster seemed to agree that it had done enough and charged at Thor. He ducked one of its hands but the monster just kicked him out of the way. He got back up and ran in to punch it again, but he didn't he make a mark. The machine whirred, it sounded like laughter. Thor finally got knocked backwards into a wall. His head made a crunch and he lay there. The metal monster just stood and watched.

Q couldn't just leave him lying there, running forwards he almost collided with Jane who slid in to clutch onto Thor, Q knelt on the other side. Jane held onto his hand as Q felt his chest.

"Your ribs are broken, it mighty have pushed in and collapsed a lung, we have to get you to a doctor now."

Thor shook his head, "No, I must be the one to stop The Destroyer, no one else can."

Jane was shaking next to him, "Thor, you've done enough, you can't always be the hero."

On the word hero Thor lit up. A bolt of lightning came out of the sky from nowhere, pushing Q and Jane back. They both had to cover their eyes, they live was so blinding. Suddenly it died away but Thor wasn't lying down anymore. He was standing in a full battle armour, with chain down his chest and plates along his torso and shoulders. A red cape hung royally down his back and at his feet was the hammer Mjolnir.

Thor bent down to pick it up, lightning coursing through his body as he did. Q knew how that he was standing in front of the Thor who came from legend. He was basically a god.

His communicator came to life, Coulson was yelling over it, "Q... Q REPORT what is going on in town, we've got agents on the way."

"Negative, do not engage, set up a parameter and evacuate the area. Trust me sir, this is not a fight for us." Q clipped his communicator back the his belt and grabbed Jane's arm, pulling her away from Thor and the destroyer. Looking back he could see Thor hosting the destroyer in the head leaving a huge dent in the metal. He would not be want to be in the receiving end of that swing

He left Jane with Darcy and Erik before running back towards the fight. Buildings were crumbling as the two fought, throwing eachother at things. Q kicked open the door of a partially demolished house. Running inside he found a mum cowering, holding her to small sons close to her. Clutched them closer as Q came into the room. Q stopped and crouched down next to her.

"Are you hurt?" She shook her head, " come on we have to get out of here, this building could collapse any second now."

She allowed herself to be pulled up by Q who then picked up one of the boys and held onto the other's hand. He pulled them out the back door onto another street. At the end of the road he saw a shield suv, this must be their perimeter.

"You see that van, run and don't stop until you are behind it ok." She nodded and grabbed her sons and ran. Q ran in the opposite direction, searching for any other survivors. He saw Thor thrown through a shop window before getting up and flying into the head of the Destroyer. Q found two more groups of people that he sent to the evac line before he saw Thor being thrown into the ground.

Thor sunk about a foot through the Tarmac and didn't look like he was moving. Q then did something stupid, really really stupid. The faceplate was opening on the destroyer, ready to roast Thor when it was hit in the back of the head by a large rock.

"Hey Loki, look at me. What do you want, do you want your brother dead. Because I won't let that happen, you will have to go through me." The destroyer turned, laughing again. Q pictured a face, evil and sadistic laughing on another planet somewhere.

The faceplate opened again, the laser beam about to roast Q

Well I haven't had that good a life but ah well.

Q closed his eyes, he heard an explosion and felt himself knocked off his feet.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Q opened his eyes. He was alive, that was nice to know at least. His head ached again though, he felt it and his hand came away with some blood on it, he had a cut across his forehead. He sat up, looking around. He had been thrown down the street by an explosion. Whilst he had distracted the machine, Thor had called down lightning and cracked open the destroyer. That had caused some internal system failure and voila, explosion.

I got to my feet, I was covered in little pieces of shrapnel, a few bigger than the rest that were properly imbedded in me. I fell over again, my bad arm causing a rush of pain to go through me. My right hip was burning, I felt down to it. Shit. There was a large piece of metal, about the size of a carving knife in sticking through him. He pulled himself back to sit up against the curb.

Thor had ran over to him, accompanied by Jane. "Warrior y-"

"Q my name is Q, stop with all this warrior stuff." Q's voice sounded weak

"Q you are hurt, I... I am sorry, what you did was beyond brave, I fear I can never live up to such loyalty. My brother Loki must be stopped, he is trying to break his way into my father's chambers to kill him." Thor looked scare, scared that he would love a father.

"Go, quickly. Before it is to late. I'll be fine, it's just a little piece of metal." He managed a weak smile

"I will be back soon, once my kingdom is safe." Thor erupted into a rainbow of light, quickly disappearing.

Jane threw up her arm, Q looked around to see SHIELD agents running down the street towards him. Jane stepped back as two agents slid in next to him, pressing down hard on his wound and giving him a shot of morphine in the arm. The pain went away but the whole world became floaty again. Closing his eyes he felt himself slip deeply away.

Q was at the door now, standing next to the mistress. This time felt different. He felt different, he was smaller. He was tiny, barely coming up to her hips. She took his hand, but it hurt to move his hole body hurt to move but she pulled him through the door. Inside was a dark room, in the centre was a chair, like a dentist chair, surrounded by a circle of light. He was brought forward, lifted onto the chair and strapped to it. People surrounded him, talking, he couldn't hear their voices.

Once of them pushed a needle into his arm

Q flicked open his eyes, he felt dull and leaden. Most of his body ached and the lights above him were far to bright. He sat up looking around him, he wasn't in the New Mexico infirmary anymore. This was a private wing in what looked like a proper hospital, or maybe a shield hospital. He turned around as his door opened and in walked the doctor from the New Mexico, he finally found out that her name was Dr Hope, she had a little nam badge on. She looked at him with concerned eyes before checking the monitors.

"I'm almost going to thank you, you managed to get me out of New Mexico pretty quick when I had to give you a medevac back to New York, we are back at SHIELD HQ now." She smiled and Q laid back against his pillows again, grimacing at a stab of pain from his hip. "I did say almost though, what where you thinking, I took you off active duty and you ran into a war zone, only to end up with twelve pieces of shrapnel I had to remove with tweezers and one piece that you had to go under the knife for." She poked him hard in his rips. She became quiet again, "there's.. Um, so one here to see you, though I can them away again if you aren't ready to see people."

"No doc, I'm good. Who is it?" Q hope for Clint and Natasha, maybe even Coulson.

Dr Hope walked out of the door and Q was surprised to see that Nick Fury walked into his hospital room, though he wasn't nearly as surprised by swing the director of shield as he was by seeing the next person. The President of the United States of America walked in behind Fury and closed the door to the private room.

Q tried to sit up in bed but the president held up a hand. "Son, don't move, you've gone through some tough times recently. I can't tell you how much I saddens me to see you sitting there, my own son is only two years younger than you and yet we are relying on you to protect our country. And protect it you have, I've seen many things in my life, both in the Air Force and in the Presidency but never have I seen bravery like you preformed yesterday. You stood up to an unknown alien threat and saved over thirty civilians. For this I salute you." The president gave him a salute, standing to full attention. "We had a slight argument before, you are technically not in the military because your job technically doesn't exist, and given your background you are not an American citizen either, but I said to hell with that and decided to give you both of these. I'm just sorry that they can not be given in any formal ceremony." He opened the door and an aide walked in carrying two small wooden boxes, handing the first to the president.

"This is the Medal of Honor, the highest achievement any member of the armed services can achieve for your bravery and valour during battle." He opened the box to show Q the medal in the shape of a star with his name Quentin Jacobs stamped proudly on the front of the box.

"And this is the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award that can be bestowed by me upon a civilian of these United States, for your achievement in keeping our nation safe and free you have achieved this. Congratulations and may I say how personally grateful I am to you." The President opened the second box to show a golden star. His name was also printed on the box.

The president saluted again before leaving the room. Q still felt as shocked as he was when the President had walked in. Fury walked to the door and opened it, beckoning in two figures. Nat and Clint had been waiting outside for him. Both of them inspected the medals.

"This is just... phew, you have no idea how proud Nat and I are, what you did was so amazing " Clint Beemer at him, his eyes full of praise.

"Though stupid, you could have died, what were you thinking." Nat sounded annoyed but Q knew that she was just thinking of how upset she would have been if he had died.

"Yes Agent Jacobs, I didn't feel as if your induction into SHIELD was a good move. But you have proved that Agent Barton was correct. You have brought a great honour on our organisation. You have proved that you can lead men in the field and are a capable solo agent, going beyond the line of duty. I am promoting you from your training status to a level seven agent. You will be assigned to STRIKE team delta effective immediately." Q couldn't think of how to make this day weirder, he had woken up hundreds of miles from where he fell asleep, was given medals by the president and finally promoted from the lowest rank of agent to the highest.

"Th... Thank you sir" Q's head felt light as Nat squeezed him. Fury almost smiled. Almost

"You've got two weeks leave starting tomorrow, oh and we got you an apartment" seeing the shock on Q's face he quickly added, "don't worry it is just across the road from Barton, there is no need to be afraid. Now I really must be going. Good luck Agent."

Q felt something as Fury left, a feeling that emanated from the imposing man, it was a feeling of trust and care. Q knew then that Fury really did care for his agents and in that moment he decided to trust the man who probably had more secrets than the rest of the planet combined.

Nat and Clint sat down next to him in the chairs by his bed. "Gah your gonna have it easy, two weeks leave! Me and Coulson have already been reassigned down to Santa Fe and Nat is going to Russia for a couple of months. Though we will both be there tomorrow."

Q looked confuse again, "how did you find out..."

"What you really didn't think we wouldn't know" Nat said with a superior tone. "If you really got to know it's because Stark sent a gift because apparently you told them it was your Birthday tomorrow and you didn't tell us." Nat really had a good fake hurt face.

"I didn't want a fuss about it, it's just a birthday." Q looked around the room, not wanting to make eye contact with them.

"It's your sixteenth and your first birthday in the normal world and you just came back from a death defying triple mission. I say you get to have a party, Laura has already started preparing." Q looked genuinely worried now, "it won't be that bad, just Nat, Phil you and my lot."

"Well I'm looking forward to it then." Q smiled another week smile. Nat and Clint could see that how tired he was feeling and decided to leave him in peace.

Q quickly drifted back to sleep and for the first time in a longtime he didn't have nightmares.

Q was woken up by the nurse next morning coming into his room to check if he was still breathing.

"Aw hon, did ya sleep well?" She said with a slight twang in her voice.

"Yeah really great thanks, do you know what time I can get out of here?" Q felt restless having been asleep so long.

"Yeah hon, you just need Doctor Hope to sign off that your stitches are ok and then you can go, I can getcha breakfast if you would like?" When Q nodded she walked out of his room, only to be back a few minutes later with some waffles and syrup. "There ya go. Now eat up, you needcha strength back." She made sure he ate it all before taking his tray away. As she left Dr Hope walked in.

"Good morning, how are you feeling?" She shone a light in his eye and started examining is various cuts and bruises.

"I feel fine doc, just a bit of aching in my arm, that's all. The new cast was awful though." He had only realised when he woke up that morning that his cast had been changed for a pink one. The President had given him two medals, while he was in bed wearing a pink cast on his arm.

"Well you know not to break it in future now, because I will find the pinkest cast I can next time." She glared at him so Q knew her threat wasn't idol at all. She checked that his stitching on his hip was still in place and put over a new pad and then helped him out of bed. "There are some clothes for you in one of the drawers over there, don't take of that pad for at least five days," she motioned to the chest of drawers in the corner of the room, "and I think Agent Barton is going to take you home, he is waiting just outside. You can leave whenever you are ready, now you may not believe it but I actually do have per patients, no matter how much time I spend patching you up. So good luck out there Q, I better not see you in here again for another month at least." Doctor Hope signed at the bottom of his chart and walked out.

Q quickly changed into his clothes, Clint must have brought them from his room. Leaving his room he found Clint in a waiting room in the bright waiting room. Disturbing posters about how to look after bullet wounds at home lined the walls.

"Happy birthday Q" Clint handed him a cup of coffee, "come on, I've got a great day planned for us." The two of them walked out of the hospital doors, Q still with a slight limp. It was odd, because the second you were out the door of the medical wing, you were back in a grey SHIELD corridor. Q almost felt blinded from change having spent the last few days surrounded by the bright colours.

Is was a Saturday so not many people were in the office but those who were stopped to stare at him as he walked past, some even coming up to him and clapping hi on the back or shaking his hand.

"News travels fast around here doesn't it" Q was tired of the attention he was getting and couldn't keep a hint of annoyance out of his voice.

"Of course it does, your on YouTube." Q started as Nat's voice came from behind him. He felt a war glow in his chest to be back with his friends. "Damm, over five million hits, you beat the clip of me and Clint in Beirut. Unknown boy saves superhero. Of course, they have not idea who you are. SHIELD has kept everything under wraps quite well but some cellphone footage leaked out. You are all over the news, better keep a low profile for a while, though no one will expect you to turn up in New York."

They made their way down to the garage level walking over to Clint's car.

"Hope you don't mind, Laura has a shift at work till three so we've got the kids." Clint looked concerned at Q. Q saw in his eyes a fear that Q wouldn't be happy.

"Yeah that sounded great, I want to spend a day around normal people. No more ego centric billionaires or ancient Norse demigods. What have you got planned for us?" Nothing could spoil this day for Q, or at least he wouldn't let anyone ruin it.

They got into the car, Clint still not letting Q drive even though he was sixteen now. "Nope, not ever, no one touches my baby. I love her more than Coulson loves his Captain America trading cards." Q laughed but Nat looked across at him.

"I wouldn't make fun of them, he is very proud." Q scowled, still not sure if they were serious or not.

They drove through the city, reaching Clint's home pretty quickly and then swapping the car for an SUV that Clint swore was being searched for by the Tokyo branch of SHIELD.

Nat grabbed Lilia from inside, where her mum was all to happy to get her out of her heir. whilst she was getting ready for work and their small group drove over to the local park where Cooper had a group of friends playing soccer. They all sat on the sidelines, with Lilia talking about her latest obsession with the My Little Pony she had in her hand.

It was nice, just being able to sit in the sunshine, letting life pass him by. They were watching Lilia run around with a group of friends that she had found. Just being able to sit and chat felt so new to Q, his life had always been dictated and planned. Every waking moment was for training or fighting or running.

"So how did you not just kill Stark? I mean he seemed to like Q but then again both of them are massive nerds so that's expected really." Clint was lying on his back in the grass, twirling a drum stick in his hand. As far as Q knew, Clint didn't own drums so he made a mental note to find out their story.

"Stark's not that bad you know, you just get him started talking and he won't stop, practically entertains himself. And what's a nerd, if you called me it though it's never gonna be good." Q's sounded happy and content sitting around the grass. He was looking froward to spending the evening with his friends.

"Ah luchshiy drug, I felt like killing Stark on my first day, especially after Monaco, he was such an idiot." Nat's voice was sweet and Q heard the dangerous purr in it. He didn't doubt that if she had a reason she would have put a bullet in Stark's brain instantly.

"luchshiy drug, what does that even mean?" Clint looked across as her. Q looked confused as well even though Russian was his first language.

"Have you never heard that before? It was just some slang from the Red Room. It was what you called the person who you most wished you wouldn't have to fight." Nat looked at Q with open and honest eyes. For a spy she did open up to him quite easily.

"No, I never heard that before... I... I killed everyone else." Q felt himself tense up. Clint laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Q don't feel like you have to talk about this now, ther-" Clint said with a harsh feeling in his voice. Q interrupted him by shrugging his hand off.

"No, I need to do this. I can't keep running from my past, I've got to face it one day or another, so it might as well be now. You know when I said before... About what Nat did to me was for breaking down mental barriers which would magically enhance my strength. Well that was a bit of a lie. There was a doctor at the Red Room, he was on old Russian called Valdov Eustar.. He was obsessed with the super soldier serum. The once that made Captain America, Captain America. No one had perfected the serum since the war after the man who first invented it was shot but Dr Eustar was obsessed with creating a modern super soldier. He decided that the reason no one else had succeeded was because the mind would reject it, not allow the body to perfect itself. I was four years old. What Nat did to me had pushed my mind to far. I broke, going completely insane. I remember seeing people dancing along the corridor that led from my cell to the lab where I was tested on. My mind was spinning and reeling. I heard singing. It feels odd now, I remember it so clearly. Then there was a stinging pain along my arms, they had injected me with half a dozen needles. They pushed an odd blue fluid into me, I remember it burning all inside me before I passed out. When I woke up my mind had snapped back, the scientists were surrounding me. Doctor Eustar in the centre. He undid the straps that held me down. I remember looking at him. I remember I said, "it feels odd" but the doctor just smiled. "You are perfect.""

Q could feel a few tears running down his cheek. Clint had a hard look on his face but it was Nat who spoke first. She lent in close to him, "I'm going to find them luchshiy drug. Im going to find them and then I'm going to kill them all."

She got up and started walking away from him, but Q called out again. "There's more, there were other boys, I know the Red Room doesn't usually have them but there was a whole corridor of us." Q pulled out the old knife he carried whilst he talked, flicking it in and out. "None of them had been injected you see, they weren't competition to me, all they were were cannon fodder. I killed them all, one by one. Twelve boys and not one of them is alive today. The worse thing is that it got easier every time. Whether I was shooting one for running slow or slitting another's throat with a knife the killing got easier. And that was the whole idea, make killing easier, turn him into the assassin we want him to be." Q dug the end of the knife into his fingertip, a small bead of blood welling up.

Q hadn't seen her coming and so almost stabbed Lilia when she jumped on him. He hadn't noticed Nat signalling her to come closer.

"Q, it doesn't matter that you didn't have a family growing up. You have one now and that's all that matters. We may be a bit dysfunctional but we will always be there for one another. Lilia what did you want to say to him." Nat had steel in her voice, determined to not let Q wallow in self hatred.

"Oh yeah, I wanted too say, um... Happy birthday Q." Lilia had her little grin on her face and Q managed to forget all his problems in that moment, looking at Lilia before hugging her close. He felt the tears start to fall down his face again but he wiped them away before anyone could see.

Clint was looking at him again. "Kiddo. Always remember that who we were isn't who we are now. It's what you do with your life from now that will define you. You aren't stuck in that past anymore, you just have to let it go."

The rest of the afternoon past quickly, with a familial glow surrounding their group. Q had been raised believing that being an assassin meant that he could never have a family. A home. Someone who loved him. He now knew the truth. It wasn't that no one could love you, it's that you find the people that you trust and they are your family, closer than any other bond that can be made.

After soccer in the park, their group went back to Clint's house where Laura had been making a huge dinner for them of beef stew. It was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted and being surrounded by his friends made it the happiest moment of his life, just sitting there at the dinner table. Laughing and smiling, talking about old funny stories.

They moved through to the living room where Phil brought through a pile of boxes. Q realised that they were for him.

"You bought me things?" Q felt confused, why would you give someone things on a birthday?

It was Lilia's innocent voice that broke through his confusion. "You always get presents I your birthday. Otherwise how can other people show they like you?" For someone so young, Lilia was pretty smart sometimes.

Clint grabbed the box on top, opening it to show a black watch with silver metal gilding it. It was covered in knobs and switches making it rather big and bulky.

"This isn't just any old watch," he pulled out one of the knobs, revealing a thin cable that stretched out. "This is the strongest wire in the world, that could hold up a car. And this," he pointed at the button next to it, "fires the claw over fifty feet. And-"

"Ok ok, stop geeking out over the watch, let him look at his other presents." Laura scowled at the pair of them. Q was looking feverishly at the watch, trying to figure out all of its features. So far he had seen a dart launcher, an electrodisk and if you turned the watch head around it became a miniature computer.

Phil passed Nat the next box. She pulled the is off to show him a long knife that was beautiful. Made with a long black hilt that had an intricate pattern of lines running along it and a small crest sat it the middle of the hilt. It was a circle with a line crossing through it that didn't quite reached the edge of the circle. A bolt of lightning crossed behind it perpendicular to the line that Q though represented his staff. The blade was long and thin, razor sharp with a fine cut on it. It was the opposite of Barton's gift. Where the watch was high tech and bulky the knife was thin and old fashioned.

Q felt overwhelmed with emotion, completely filled with joy and gratitude to his two friends.

"This is just to... Wow I don't know how I can thank you enough."

Nat reached out to him, resting her hand ontop of his whilst smiling at him.

Phil made a coughing noise at the back of his throat and grabbed a big box that he opened to show Q a stack of books and a few DVDs. "Everything you need to watch and read, all the old classics and some new ones. Basically everything to get to know pop culture in the world." Q quickly scanned the pile looking at all the names, Lord of the rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars. The list went on and on. He was going to take a long time to get through them all.

Laura pulled out a painting. It showed a field with flowers and trees. Flowers dotted the scene with barrages of colour. Q looked at it and was straight away taken to a happy place in his mind, with the wind rushing through his hair and the grass lowing around him. Looking at the painting just gave him such a good feeling of peace, tranquil and calm.

Her voice was quiet from behind the painting, "I thought you might need something to go on your wall in your new apartment, you know, because you have nothing really of your own and I thought it was quite, um nice." She sounded scared that he wouldn't like it, being the super assassin that he was.

"It's perfect, it's looks just so nice. I want to be in there, walking in that field." Q heard the sincerity flow through his voice. Laura beamed at him, happy that she hadn't gotten him a bad present.

Lilia had made him a card and Cooper had made him an impressive figure from plastic class. It was a fighter that looks a little like him holding a staff, the painting on it was quite intricate and Q was surprised that such a small boy would have the precision to paint it.

Clint suddenly sat up, remembering something before rushing out of the room. He returned a few second later with a small wooden box.

"Jane Foster left this with me before we took off, she said she that it had returned from Asgard from Thor. I decided to leave it for you until your birthday though."

Q opened the box to see a small cylinder of a silvery metal with a note tucked next to it. He picked up the note and saw a large cursive text

Warrior, this is what we on Asgard call Mithril. It is strong material, with the perfect weight for any weapon it is cast in. I trust you abilities to use it.

His staff was going to pack one hell of a punch now.

After the presents were done they all sang happy birthday for him as Laura showed them the massive cake that she had gotten from a little baker around the corner. It tasted of vanilla with a lovely sponge centre that melted in his mouth. It was the perfect way to end the evening and Q soon started to feel tired. Phil and Nat had already gone home but Q had been convinced into staying letting Lilia draw on his cast whilst she got ready for bed. After the kids had been tucked in Q couldn't make anymore excuses to stay.

"I really need to go and have a lock at the flat, I haven't been inside yet." He was looking down the street, not able to spot it as you had to turn a corner.

"Oh that reminds me, you may want these." Clint was speaking to him from behind a pair of keys that he was holding out in front of him. Q took them. The keys felt heavy in his hand, he was not sure how he felt about having his own apartment, his own place to call home. As far as he could remember, this was his first ever. He supposed that he must of had a home when he was still small, still living with his father but he couldn't remember that house, especially after his last memory there was of his father's corpse.

He hoisted the painting under his arm and piled the other boxes into the big box from Phil and pulled that under the other arm before nodding goodbye to Clint and Laura.

"Just remember that our door is always open, day or night." Laura called out as Q walked down the sidewalk. He was scanning the distance, looking for the building before finally seeing it. It was a tall building, at least ten stories, with large windows looking out the front. He speed walked to the door, feeling happy as he pushed a key into the lock and twisting with a nice click. The door swung open to show a cozy entry hall with a green carpet and some stairs. Q knew that his apartment was on the sixth floor so he jumped in the lift that was just next to the stairs and slammed his hand into the six button. As he spilled out onto the carpet of the hallway he looked across to see the door to his apartment opposite. He went and pushed the second key into the lock, feeling excitement course through him as he opened the door.

He walked through the door to find a spacious living room, with large greens sofas spread out across the floor to create a large sitting area and a huge TV was mounted on the wall. Q looked across the living room to see a kitchen with a modern fridge, cooker and sink. He walked across to open the cupboards, finding a few glasses and a mug but little else. He looked around and noticed a small white envelope sitting on a counter top. He pulled it open to find a debit card and a small piece of paper detailing some bank account. On the back of the piece of paper were just two words, go wild.

Q smiled after reading it and walked across the room to a door which he opened to find a set of stairs hidden by it to get to a second floor. Going up them he found a bathroom with a huge shower and fancy toilet. Crossing over to another door he found a bedroom that was just occupied by what looked like a very large and thick bed. Q found all his clothes in a wardrobe that was linked to this room, which was clearly going to be his bedroom.

Q suddenly realised how overcome with sleep he was and fell into bed after quickly changing into his pyjamas. He woke up the next morning with a start, forgetting where he was before realising he was in his own room. In his own apartment.

He got out of bed and got dressed, washing in his own bathroom. He decided to explore the rest of the apartment. He walked to the other door on the top floor which he guessed to be a second bedroom after looking inside and finding nothing, he would have to buy a bed for this room. He walked downstairs again to see his lounge with the big green sofas and the kitchen. He found some orange juice in the fridge, it was the only thing in there, and poured himself a glass, sitting on a stool at the little breakfast bar his counter made up.

He looked across the room to see another door that was as the side of the apartment. He walked across the room to open it to find a huge long space, about three quarters the width of the rest of the apartment and just as long. The was a single note on the wall saying Use your imagination

Q smiled as ideas started flooding through his head.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The next two weeks passed by in a blur. Q kept himself in shape, running each morning and walked around for most of the day. He bought loads of things for his apartment, everything from mugs and cutlery to a MacBook and a new coffee table for the lounge. He got a chance to check the bank account in detail and was very surprised when he saw how much SHIELD pays its agents, at least it explained how Barton could have that big a house in central New York. He had put up the painting and had gotten a few other pictures to decorate the walls and a few plant pots to brighten up the place. He found the place feeling more like his everyday he lived there.

It was just a shame that he hadn't seen his friends much. Barton had gone away with Coulson on some top secret project in Santa Fe and Nat was galavanting around Russia where she would be for months. At least he had time to spend on remodelling the side room, which he was fast calling his Playroom. He had completely renovated it, creating an ultra modern weapons lab with workstations and a mini firing range. It would be perfect for working on his passion projects, like his staff had been whenever he wanted. Upgrading his staff with the new Mithril hadn't been difficult, the metal was remarkably easy to cast and his tests had proved it incredibly strong. It had withstood forces of up to a ton and hadn't bent.

He had also found out a bit about his neighbours, to the left of him was a young doctor. She worked at Mount Sinai Medical Centre, training to be a surgeon. She was pretty good at it apparently, because when he looked her up he saw a possible recruitment tag on her file in the SHIELD database. To his right was an elderly widow whose husband had be some oil baron, she was nice enough and had Q help her catch one of her many cats when it had escaped.

He thought that his arm would be in a cast for another three weeks, it was just a shame that none of the healing effects that Captain America had were passed to him. But his time of lazing at home and watching the movies that Coulson had got him had to end and after two weeks he was ready to go back into work.

Walking through the front door of SHIElD felt completely different to when he left it two weeks ago. Today was just a normal Monday morning and people were coming into work after a relaxing weekend. He had had to catch a bus into work which felt both humiliating and somewhat satisfying because it was close to normality, still Q was determined to get his own car.

The news had filtered through the whole of SHIELD about what he had done and all Q could see on people's faces as he walked in was a look of reverence on the face of every person around him. He was just a sixteen year old boy who was wearing a standard issue trousers and t shirt and a bright pink cast around his arm who had happened to save the world two weeks ago.

He crossed the room and got Into an elevator on his own. He had a meeting with Fury so he said "37th floor," and the elevator zoomed up, depositing him on Fury's floor. He remembered the last time he was walking across here, being very quite and ready to kill. He felt a lot calmer this time, his heart not pumping and his senses quite dull. He walked to the door at the end of the hallway and knocked on the office door, the door swinging open and Q stepped inside.

Fury was sitting on the sofa near the door. There were two sofas facing each other, with a small table in between them. Opposite Fury sat a older man with greying hair, Q thought he recognised him from somewhere.

The two men stood up as he walked into the room, the older man reaching out to shake his hand. He took it giving the man a long shake.

"Councilmen Piers, it is a great honour to meet you Agent Jacobs. I have to say how proud we all are of what you have accomplished." The man had a big smile, that felt quite forced though Q thought that is could possibly be real. Maybe the man was just a politician.

Q smiled back at him, "thank you sir, but I was just doing my job."

Piers looked at Fury and laughed. "You make them modest as well. I've got to go now, my job never ceases. Remember Fury, I work twenty floors above you so no excuse to be a stranger."

Piers quickly left the room and Fury motioned for Q to take a seat at his desk. They sat down on opposite sides of the desk. "Don't worry, Pierce is one of the good guys, I haven't seen anyone so dedicated to our cause."

"I've read your medical report Q, Dr Hope has recommended a further two weeks off of any physical activity but I know that you already plan to not listen to that so I'm going to leave your physical training to you and just say that you won't be back on the active roster until you've passed a physical and mental assessment." Q grimaced of the thought of having someone poke around in his head. "We've set you up with a desk in Barton and Romanov's office, I've spoken with Coulson and he has accepted my transfer of you to STRIKE team delta so from this point on he is your official handler. He would also like you to know that you have not filed any mission report yet. Fury felt far less intimidating now, after Q knew that the man wasn't trying to kill him.

Q took his cue to leave and left the directors office. Making his way down to his own desk where he found a new Mac and half a stationary in the drawers. Q heard the door lock behind him and he turned around panicked before hearing his communicator ping,

"Automatic protocol with my team, you can't leave the office until you've filed the report - C" Q grimaced at the message.

The rest of the day passed by quite quickly, Q just working on his report before submitting it to Coulson who was out working in Santa Fe. He heard the door click open a minute after he had finished and his communicator pinged again.

"What, with no brake out attempt. Almost disappointed - C"

Q didn't like to think about what methods Coulson had put in the office to keep Barton motivated to finish his reports but Q decided not to find out.

He had nothing to do for the rest of the day so Q decided to head down to the weapon labs where he showed Doctor Kleinheart his new Mithril staff, which the doctor was duelly impressed with and the two of them spent the rest of the afternoon working on improvements to the design.

Q dropped into bed that night feeling satisfied with his day, he just wanted everything to get back to normal, or at least as normal as it did in SHIELD.

He actually managed to enjoy the rest of the week, he had started intensive Qinjet lessons which were going very well. The jet is actually easier to fly then the helicopter or few planes that he had flown in his training were. It was just as simple as push the stick and go. He had also gotten back into physical training, trying to get himself back into peak physical shape but he still had to be careful with his broken arm. He had even had to babysit Lilia and Connor for Laura while she pulled a long shift at the hospital.

His week didn't get especially exiting till the Friday where Q finally got the chance to go car shopping. It didn't take him long to find one he liked, a Ferrari F12Berlinetta. It had a beautiful body with a hugely powerful engine that purred when he first got in. The dealer was shocked when he rocked up ready to buy, Q guessed that not many sixteen year olds bought the latest model of Ferrari but once his cheque had passed the keys were handed over he had taken it home. He was bursting with ideas of what to add on to the car, though he wasn't quite sure if he could fit a rocket launcher behind the headlamps.

At least one one would bat an eyelid at the car. If his license or plates were run, they would be an automatic block placed so no questions were asked about it or the driver. Though Q was pretty sure that HR would be on his back if he was caught speeding.

The weekend passed by quickly with Q just working on his new car. Minette, the young doctor who lived next door to him was amazed by the car. Q laughed when she first came down and saw it but he was slightly worried that she got the wrong idea, because she immediately asked when where the police coming to take it back to its owner.

He was dreading Monday though. Q had his psych evaluation to check that the last few weeks hadn't left him a drooling vegetable. It would be completely pointless as he knew the answers to the questions that would make him look sane anyway but orders were orders so on Monday morning he found himself sitting in a small office on a mid level floor of the New York HQ.

His psychiatrist was twenty minutes late and Q had spent that time texting Coulson about how pointless this was and Coulson texted back everytime telling him to suck it up.

Q twitched round as the door opened and a young girl walked in. She couldn't have been more than seventeen or eighteen with long blonde hair that fell in slight curls and a beautiful body that was quite petite but still looked good. God this must be some secretary who will tell me her boss is late. To Q's great surprise she sat down opposite him, placing two large coffee cups that she had been carrying with her on the desk.

"Sorry the line in Starbucks was awful, I guessed what you want but let's be honest, who doesn't love the White chocolate mocha." She spoke with a British accent and looked him directly in the eye as she talked. "It's good to see that I didn't have to have Fury drag you down here, not many agents like their psych evals. I'm Doctor Waters but you can call me Amy. I take it that it's ok to call you Q?"

Q nodded at her before speaking, "it's... Um good to meet you Doctor Waters, I just expected someone well..."

She laughed, "older? Says a sixteen year old agent" she passed one of the cups to him. Q took a sip of it, it tasted ultra sweet and delicious. "I'm the youngest Psychie we have here, I only got my doctorate a month ago just after I turned seventeen but I am still the youngest doctor in America right now. I graduated High school three years early so here I am."

"Well I was abducted into a secret soviet super soldier program as a toddler where I then grew up in an assassin training facility where I killed every other boy my age whilst going rough one of the most rigorous training programs that would be impossible for a normal human to survive." Q wasn't sure why he had said it. He had just opened up more to this young doctor than he had to anyone else excluding Nat and Clint. And he felt totally fine about doing it. He felt the shock pass over his face and knew that Amy had picked up on it.

"Well I can't say that you case isn't individual but I can say that you are handling it remarkably well especially considering the last few weeks. I take it you've been settling well, enjoying all the perks working for SHIELD gives you?" Q just nodded again, not wanting to give anything more away.

Amy didn't let that stop her and she continued one, "I've got some basic boxes to tick, have you been having any residual effects from the last mission? Any flashback, phantom pain, strange noises?" Q shook his head again, he felt that he had been able to move on from New Mexico quite well.

"Any trouble sleeping?" Q shook his head again, "no nightmares?" Q hesitated for a second and knew that he had just been out manoeuvred. Amy leaned forward before reaching into a desk and flicking a switch. "There we go, the recorder is off. So you have been having nightmares, I suppose it's only natural with what you've been through. If I was to ask what they were would you tell me?"

Q just sat on his chair motionless, he felt a hand grip his stomach and twist it. What did he want to say, what did he have to say? "They... They're not about the mission, they are in... In the" Q stuttered

"The Red Room." Amy spoke softly with a calming tone. Q shrank back in his chair, trying to remove himself from the conversation. "Q, it's ok, you can tell me. Just trust that I will be there to help you."

"They... They are all from the same time. It was after." He faltered again, "after what Nat, Agent Romanov was forced to do. After that I was put in the corridor, I was so small and voices were all around me and I didn't know what to do. I just walked and fell, barely able to hold myself up. There were flashing lights and pulsing orbs, I saw a lady. The lady. At the end of the corridor. She took my hand and pulled me into the room at the end. There was a chair, like at the dentist and I was strapped in. I could still hear the voices. They were singing or screaming. They pushed needles into my arms and chest. It burned, it burned so much. I screamed and screamed but there was none there. I just blacked out, my mind went blank and that's where I wake up. It was all part of their plan you see, their little experiment. They broke my mind, because that's what would stop the serum working and then the serum snapped it back. Though I don't even know if I'm the same person as I was back then."

Q hadn't noticed but Amy had gotten up and sat next to him, she had put an arm around him and once he finished speaking she pulled him close into a hug. He felt a few tears fall down his face but was shocked to see that there were also tears in Amy's eyes. He felt bad now, he had upset her. "I'm... Im sorry I didn't mean to"

Her smiled cut him off. "No, it's just, that story. You've gone through so much and you are still here, fighting on and saving us all. Any normal person would have given up by now."

They sat in silence for a time after that, just watching each other. Q was glad to have met Amy Waters. He realised that he had met a true friend today. After about ten minutes of silence Amy got up and walked to the door, opening and motioning for Q to follow her. "Come on, I want you to meet someone."

Amy drove him across town to the VA. Q felt out of place amongst these soldiers but Amy just strode through. A few people acknowledged her, shaking her hand. She turned and spoke quietly to Q as they were walking past a large group of people. "I do life coaching classes here, helping some people get back on their feet after the things they've had to do. I want you to meet someone here." She walked to a door at the far end of the building before knocking politely on the door. "Can you wait outside for a moment."

Q sat on a chair opposite the door, trying not to listen in on ten conversation going on inside but he couldn't help himself.

"Think of it as a trial run, he's gone through worse than most people have in their entire lives, just let him sit in on one of your sessions, it will help a lot."

Q heard a deeper mans voice, "fine, you know me, I'm not going to turn down someone who wants some help. What happened to him."

"I can't really say, but he has one of the best passive faces I've ever seen, I couldn't tell whether he actually was broken inside or was fine until I spoke to him." Passive face? What was that supposed to mean.

The door suddenly opened and Amy stepped out with a large African American man who was tall and slim, with well built muscle.

"Hey Q, this is Sam Willson. He gives speeches here to some guys who are having pretty bad times. We are gonna sit in on one of those talks today if you are up for it." Q nodded and then shook the hand offered to him by Sam.

"Amy said you've been having a hard time getting your life back together. I don't want to imagine what a kid like you has gone through but if you need anything I'm here to help, at least for another few weeks. I'm heading on up to DC soon." He had a kind face but Q could almost see through the facade to the battle hardened warrior that was lay inside of Sam.

Q and Amy followed Sam through to a hall with some chairs in it and the two of them sat near the back to listen. Loads of people filed in to watch. Q didn't realise that there were this many people who needed help from people like Sam. Sam was standing at the front, reading through some notes and greeting the occasional person.

Once the hall was nearly full of people he walked over to a mic and pulled it to the front. "It's great to see a bunch of you back here, and good to see that some others were grave enough to come to." Q was sure that Sam looked at him. "We've all gone through things, things we've never wanted to go through and that we all just want to forget. Except that we can't. They stay there, at the back of your head. They destroy your life, make you unhappy all the time. We have got to face them now, before they bring you down so low that you can't ever pick yourself up. That's the only way we can ever move on."

Sam sounded like he had a lot of experience with pain and trauma in his life. San went on to ask other people what happened to them. One person was shot, one was blown up. One man was the only one to survive his squad being wiped out. Q felt dread course through him. He didn't want to hear these peoples problems. He didn't want to hear there pain and to feel it just add to his own. He heard himself start breathing hard. His eyes darted around the room. He had to get out he had to escape. He couldn't be here any more.

He was snapped back to reality when he felt a hand rest on top of his. He turned to see Amy smiling and holding on to him. She leaned in close to him and whispered in his ear. "It's ok Q, let it go. Let all the pain go, you are stronger than in. You can. You just have to believe in yourself." He felt his breathing slow had she known what he felt, how the pain he felt was coursing through him. He felt that pain leave him, flow out of him in every new breath he took. The air felt fresh and crisp in his throat. The room smelled brighter, Q could see a sunbeam glow behind the curtain.

Sam had just finished his speech as Q's panic ended and he quickly got up and left the room, he felt Amy almost run to keep up with him. She caught his arm as he was about to leave the building. He looked into her eyes, noticing for the first time the bright blue that shone from them. "Q talk to me, are you going to be ok?"

"Thank you, you've helped me a lot." Q heard sincerity in his voice.

"That's good to hear at least, I'm going to pass your psych eval, on one condition though. You are going to have sessions with me every week. I'm going to help you Q no matter how much you resist." She had a wicked glare on her face and Q trusted that she would try to help him at least.

"Ok then. I will, err, see you next week." Q said with a quiet voice and Amy turned around to go back into the VA. Q felt confused, he wasn't sure about Amy. She seemed like a nice person and she had helped him, but then he didn't even know how he felt now. He hadn't noticed that he had been carrying around emotional baggage until he had just let it drop and he felt some much lighter and freer now but he also felt a little confused s out what to do now.

Q realised that he needed to clear his head and he took of running down the street. He was running at full pace, barely fast enough for people to follow him with their eyes yet he still did get some stares. He didn't care though. He felt free of everything, his mind going blank as all he felt was the wind through his hair and the vague buzz of the city around him.

Somehow he ended up in the park near his apartment where he had spent his birthday with Clint and Nat. He looked at the watch that was on his wrist and smiled at the memory of that day. He also knew that Nat's knife was in his jacket which also made him feel a bit safer.

Suddenly he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, he looked across the park to see a big black SUV with tinted windows. Q strained his eyes to see inside the car and could make out the outline of someone that was looking at him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his staff in its small form before suddenly jumping up from the bench and racking across the park.

He could see the figure start and fumble inside the car but Q was already half way across the park. He pressed the middle button on the staff, elongating it to its full length before vaulting the five foot high fence that surrounded the park.

The car engine had started and the man inside was trying to pull out but Q grabbed the knife out of his pocket and threw it as a wheel, puncturing it and causing the car to lurch. He jumped up on the bonnet and drove the end of the staff through the window. He felt ripples along his arm as the glass was much stronger than he anticipated but he still managed to puncture it. He then kicked out sending shards flying everywhere and most of the window screen was missing.

There was a big man inside, hands gripping the steering wheel. He had long blonde hair and huge muscles were taught under the suit he was wearing. The man pushed open his door and fell out of the car, running a few meters before pulling s gun out of his jacket.

Q acted fast and flipped over the man, landing behind him and bringing his staff down on his hand, knocking the gun to the floor. The man roared out and kicked Q in the stomach.

It felt like a freight train had hit him, but he wouldn't let pain bother him. There were people around so he needed to end this fight fast. Q lashed out with his staff, sweeping a low blow that hit the man in the knee causing a loud crack from his ankle. The man roared out again as he stumbled but was quickly silenced as Q spun the staff around and hit the man in the head, bringing down to the floor.

Whilst checking that the man was unconscious Q pulled out his communicator and called in a SHIELD response team who were on the scene in less than five minutes. Q tried to keep his face down as a crowd of people had gathered around after the brutally short fight and Q didn't want his face on the news. Thankfully the SHIELD clean up crew backed the crowd away and Q was soon transporting the man to a holding cell back in HQ.

Once the man had woken up he had been marched into and interrogation room. Q quickly followed him inside.

"Why were you in the park today? To watch me? To kill me?"

The man didn't move an inch. It was odd, the man wasn't a mercenary or he would have come up on SHIELD database which only meant bad things. This guy was from some top secret enemy organisation and only one was out to get Q.

He switched to Russian when he next spoke. "So you were there to, what? Bring me back. You knew it wouldn't be that simple. You trained me to me to well for that"

The man laughed again and spoke back to Q in Russian, "ha, no kid. My job was to find out how to bring you back. At least I found that out before you brought me in. My job now is just to sit and wait."

Q was about to shout at the man as his communicator pinged. He looked down to see a message from Sam Willson.

"Have you seen Dr Waters, she hasn't signed in for her afternoon appointment."

Q's eyes widened and he felt his stomach drop away. The man started laughing again. Q head a crack of glass as he looked up. Foam was spelling out of the man's mouth, a cyanide capsule. He launched himself across the table, punching the man across the jaw.

"I will get her back, you understand. And when I do, I will kill you all." It didn't matter, the man was dead. Q got up from his seat and walked out of the room, nothing but murder in his heart now.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter twelve.

As he reached the elevator he had pulled out his communicator and messaged the one person he needed now and who could help him.

Nat, the Red Room made their move, they took something that I'm going to get back. How quickly can you be in St Petersburg? - Q

The reply took less than ten seconds to come through.

Two hours see you there - N

He got into the elevator and made his way up to the hanger. He walked to the closest Qinjet and walked on board. He didn't care what this jet was supposed to be doing. He just sat down in the pilot seat and checked that it had fuel. When he found out it did he took off without thinking twice. Once he was airborn he sent a quick message to Coulson about where he was going and why and told him to let Fury know. He didn't bother to check the reply because he needed to concentrate when he was flying the Qinjet almost one and a half times faster than it was technically safe to.

Almost two hours later Q lowered the jet onto the roof of a small building on the out skirts of St Petersburg. It was a SHIELD safe house and he left the jet cloaked on the roof. He walked down the stairs to find Natasha Romanov sitting at a table inside watching the door to the roof. She had two bowls of stew on the table. Q walked over to her and she slid one of the bowls across the table and motioned it to him.

"Eat it, your going to need your strength if we are going to take down the Red Room." Q knew she was right even if he felt so restless that he had to leave soon. "So tell me Q, what was it they took?"

"Not it, her" Nat looked confused for a moment, "Amy Waters, she was... Is my psychologist. We only met once but she... She helped me and they were watching. I think they saw something there and they decided that she was the best way to get to me."

Nat sat back, Q couldn't see any emotion on her face. "And what was there there?" There was no jealousy in her voice, just rage. Rage at the people who had hurt her little brother.

"I don't know, maybe nothing but when I was across from the man I brought in and I found out that they took her. It felt wrong inside, like they had just snapped something important in me. Like a chord tying me back to humanity."

Nat nodded at him, "I don't think any person who didn't grow up in their program would understand you. I feel the same with Clint, he is the person that makes me human. Something more than what I was meant to be."

Q could hear genuine pain through her voice. "What is it?" He felt so conflicted inside. So bundled up with emotions that he had been taught never to have.

Nat just spoke one word. "Love"

Less than half an hour later the two of them were in a car. It was a sleek Mercedes that was doing over 120mph as they left St Petersburg. Both of them knew where they were going. They knew where they would have taken Amy because it's the one place that both of them would hate to go back to. They had taken her home.

Nat was driving the car whilst Q was loading bullets into clips and storing them in punches around his combat vest. He had is staff in its special thigh holster and his Glock on the other thigh. He had Nat's knife diagonally across his chest and a wide range of other gadgets that he had found around the house. His watch was also clipped firmly around his wrist.

"I take it you never told them where it was." Q's voice was calm as he spoke for the first time in an hour. They were heading north into the frozen Kola Peninsula. They had another two hours before they would arrive.

"It never came up, there was no point. If they got any word that we were coming for them then they would move quicker than anything." Her voice was also calm. Just as they had been trained. Deadly serious when going hunting.

They fell back into silence as Nat sped down the road. It took barely another hour and a half to make it there. It was a big house, with a well maintained iron fence.

In Russian across the gate frame were the words, Red Room Ballet School. They weren't subtle at least. The gates were standing open, they were expected.

Nat drove down the driveway stopping outside the main entrance. The building looked deserted. "It's as I thought, they moved he school when they knew that we were coming." Nat had gone quite now, zeroing in on her prey

"Amy will still be inside, they wanted me to come back and here I am." Q shivered as he spoke, chills running up and down his spine.

They walked together, almost stepping back in time. Q knew where Amy would be. He pushed open the large doorway, stepping into the grand entrance hall. There was an area to the left where the girls would train for ballet and would learn to shoot. The big stairs led up to the rooms. Q rarely saw this section of the school. He was kept to one hallway. They didn't want other children ruining their experiment.

Q strode silently across the hallway, Nat following close behind. Q could barely imagine how she felt being back here, especially with Q as he was such a big source of pain for her. Q felt his own pain coursing back through his veins. This place was no longer a memory, it was all to real. He felt his head spinning before shaking it.

"No focus, don't lose your cool." He spoke quietly to himself. Nat reached out and grabbed his arm, turning him to face her. Q saw fear on her face, but a resignation to kill was there as well.

"Q, what ever happens from now on, you are to get Amy out safely, do you understand? I don't care wheat happens to me now, the only thing that matters is that you two survive ok." Q didn't feel like arguing so he said nothing but he knew that he wouldn't let Nat sacrifice herself for him. He would be the one to die in this building tonight if he had to.

He carried on walking through doors and across hallways, making his way through the labyrinth until he stopped as the end of a corridor. This was it, this was his corridor. His nightmares took over again as Nat gasped behind him. He knew how much pain that this corridor held for her. He walked slowly down it again, sure that he could hear the voices calling out to him again. He pulled out his gun as he walked out the corridor, holding it loosely in his hand.

The door at the end was getting larger, he felt like he was four years old again except there was no one standing out side the door this time. He reached the end of the corridor and slowly pushed the door open before stepping inside.

Amy was in there, she was strapped down to the dentist chair. Nothing had changed in the last eleven years. She looked pale and terrified, her eyes darting around the room.

"Q, no no Q! You shouldn't of come its all a trap, you have to leave now Q." Q ran across the room to her, Nat standing by the door. He pulled the straps of her wrist and she sat up. "You don't understand, the woman she-"

"Saying she's behind you would be far to cliche." An old voice came from the shadowy corner of the room behind Q.

He whipped round bringing his gun up to point it at her. She hadn't changed at all. The Matron or the Mistress, what ever people called her. The sadistic witch who was in charge of turning children into weapons. Nat had stiffened by the door as well.

She spoke in perfect English with no hint of an accent. "Oh please you could never shoot me, you think I brought you here just to die. No no no dear, this is stage three. Our serum didn't require us to break your mind so your body would accept it, no it would do that anyway. No no no, we broke your mind so we could control you."

She walked forward and put a hand on Q's wrist, he couldn't move. What had she done to him. It was as if he's eyes had just become viewing holes through which to see another persons life.

The Mistress leaned forward and spoke on his ear, like a mother to a child. "Now why don't we start by killing my failed student."

Q saw his body turn and point the gun at Nat, he felt himself pulling the trigger as she threw something at him. He felt pain all across his body as he saw that she had thrown and electrodisk at him. He tried to pull it off but she kicked the gun out of his hand. The mistress had retreated to a chair in the corner of the room.

Q pulled off the disk as he brought up a hand to block Nat's sidewinder punch. He countered, rolling under her guard to give a brutal jab into her stomach and he heard her gasp before she twisted away and brought her hand down like a knife on his shoulder which exploded in pain. He had to protect his left arm which was still in a cast and would be easily broken so he turned to the left and put Nat in a head lock. She pummelled his kidney until he was forced to let go and she flipped up and brought her legs around his neck, trying to choke him out. He jumped up, using his stronger muscles and hitting her against the wall before throwing her off of him.

He pulled Nat's knife out and handled it ready to kill. Q saw it in his hand and felt shock about what his body was ready to do. He darted forward, trying to stab at Nat but she rolled away, twisting his arm before he hooked it around her waist and spinning her to the floor. She fell heavily but spun around taking Q down as well. At they same time they both flipped back to their feet and Q kicked out at her knees whilst Nat punched his jaw. Both of them were reeling from the blows but Nat recovered first and twisted Q's knife hand around but he managed to slip it back and pull the knife up to her throat.

The fight was over, Q had Nat pinned against him with a knife to his throat. He was barely the same height as her so they were pressed exactly together. Time seemed to slow down as Q screamed out inside his head. He felt his muscles tensing as he heard the old lady cackle in the corner.

There was only one thing that stopped him. He felt a tug on his arm and span around with Nat still in his lock. Amy was standing next to him and she did the one thing she could to break him out of his murder trance.

She kissed him. Their lips locked together as Q suddenly released Nat. He felt her slide to the floor, gasping for breath from the hold he had on her. Q pressed himself into Amy and felt her press back. They became locked together and were tangled up, becoming indistinguishable from one another.

The old lady had stopped laughing on the corner and had begun to curse.

"No, NO! It's not possible, it's not possible." She stood up and pulled a hand gun from beneath her dress. Q moved faster than he had ever before. Spinning around with Nat's knife and throwing it across the room. It hit its target, lodging firmly in the Matron's eye.

She slumped backwards. Dead. Her red eyes lifeless against the grey wall. Q heard a howl of pain and anguish and realise that it was him making the noise. She deserved more, she should have suffered. Should have been tortured like she had done to him and Nat and to countless others.

Amy pulled his face around, looking into his emerald eyes with her big blue ones. "Q. It's over, she's gone. Your safe now, your safe with me."

Q let Amy go, turning to see that Nat had gotten up and she hugged him. They held eachother close, knowing that their nightmare was finally over. Q reached down on his watch and pressed the small button on the side. A Quinjet would now be coming to their position, following his watch back to him.

He walked out the door, Amy and Nat walking out with him. He ended up sitting on the front step outside, Nat had her arm around his shoulder and Amy was leaning on his arm. He let so close to these to girls. The two that he loved. He felt empty inside though, he just sat there. He couldn't comprehend what had just happened, how his mind had been invaded like it had and how he had almost killed Nat.

They sat like that for a long time until the jet landed in front of them. Two people got off. The two that Q knew would come for him. Clint and Coulson walked across the gravel drive towards them before stopping infront of them. The three of them stood up and Clint just motioned to the jet.

"Come on, let's go home."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter thirteen.

Clint walked into their office. It was late in the evening but Q was sitting at his desk pushing a pencil back and forth. It had been four days since they had gotten back from Russia and Q barely felt sane anymore. He had tried to kill the closest thing he had to a sister and it had left him deeply scarred. He could barely bring himself to go home at night, let alone do anyone in the day.

Clint sat down opposite him at the desk. Slamming his hand down onto the pencil he spoke, "You haven't spoken to either of them have you?" Q shook his head. "Well it's good that you have me then, I spoke to Nat. She doesn't blame you, she knows better than anyone that those people can get into your head. Amy is your problem though. Yet explained to me how you feel and you have to go talk to her." Q just sat motionless.

"Fine then, at least get out of the office, your spreading your negative energy around. Go down to the gym and work something out with a punching bag." Q silently got up and left the room.

He did take Clint's advice though and went to the gym. He went over to the chin up bar though, remembering his first day and how he had proved himself here. It felt like a lifetime ago now. Since then he had met a billionaire and a God and saved the world twice. He had been given medals by the president and had moved into his own apartment. He had found someone he loved and gone to save her life.

He jumped up onto the top bar and started pulling himself up.

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He thought about her eyes. How blue they were

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He thought about her blond hair. How it fell down perfectly framing her face.

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He thought about her kissing him, how it felt perfect to link himself to her.

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He thought of her voice calling out to him.

"You've barely broken a sweat." Her voice was so soft and sweet and close... Wait close.

Q dropped of the bar and turned around to see her, standing close behind him. She was wearing blue jeans and a fluffy hoodie with Culver University written across the front. She looked beautiful standing there but Q didn't move towards her.

"You didn't come to see me, not after we got off the jet. Not after Doc Hope had gotten through with me, not even when I came to your office. Where were you Q?" She had hurt and pain in her voice but Q still couldn't move towards her.

"I couldn't do that to you, not after you saw me. You saw who I am. Who I really am, just some monster made to kill. I would have killed Nat if you didn't stop me. You are better off without me" Q wished for anything but to say those words but knew that they were true.

Amy took two steps forward and slapped him. Hard. "Don't you dare, don't you bloody dare tell me to stay away from you. I saw you Q, who you are. And you know what, I love you Q. We were together for less than an hour and you already made me feel like I've never felt before. I love you and I know you love me back. I can feel it in here." She pointed at his chest. "And I won't stop loving you ever."

Q pressed his hands against her shoulders, pushing his head down the two inches between them before locking lips with her again. They kissed and became one again only like two people in love could. Q felt almost like their souls were knitting themselves together.

He heard the elevator doors open but didn't break away from Amy. Even Clint's sarcastic tone couldn't spoil the mood. "Well this take office romance to a hole new level." Q turned to him just in time to see Nat who was standing next to him slap him harm on the arm. "Hey that hurt, I'm just saying it's sweet. Come on love birds, we are going to go grab food."

Q and Amy just laughed, holding hands as they walked to the elevator.

They ended up in a little Italian restaurant where Amy and Q slid into a booth together, sitting opposite Nat and Clint. Their hands never stopped grasping holding eachother all through the meal. They made light conversation. Clint told them about Cooper's science project and Amy said about told them about her parents who lived in LA. It felt so nice to be close to his family, no awkwardness between any off them. They managed to pretend that they were just four normal people who all had normal lives for two whole hours.

After the meal, Nat and Clint had gotten in their cars to go home. Q would have to pick his up the next day as it was still at work and he knew that Amy's was there as well. They stood on the sidewalk out side the restaurant, holding eachothers hands as they gazed at eachother. After a long time of just standing there Amy finally broke apart from him and turned to hail a cab.

She turned back to him as she opened the door of the cab. "You know where I live, pick meal tomorrow at eight, we can have our first proper date."

Q smiled at her. "On the dot." She laughed as she shut the door of the cab. Q felt sad as it felt like a part of him had left him, moving away from him in a bright yellow car. He hailed his own car and was soon home in bed.

He woke the next morning feeling fresh and happy for the first time in a week. He had found his girl and was going on his first date that evening. Then his stomach dropped out. He was going on a date that evening.

He pulled out his communicator from his bedside draw and phoned Coulson.

"Yeah, I'm feeling very sick *cough* I can't come in today so see you on Monday bye." Q said quickly before Coulson could stop him. He then got out of bed and got ready for his day. Half an hour later he knocked on Clint's door, knowing that he wouldn't be home. Laura opened the door.

"Oh hey Q, how are you. I'm afraid you already missed Clint." She was wearing her pyjamas still as Q knew she would. Clint had mentioned that she had today off.

"No I actually wanted to talk to you if I could Laura." She looked surprised but motioned for him to come through into the living room. "Did Clint tell you about Amy?" Laura smiled at him.

"I feel so happy for you, it's good that you found someone." The genuine happiness in her voice seemed to wash over him.

"Yeah well today is going to be our first date you see and, well I've-"

Laura cut across him speaking quickly. "Your totally freaking out because this is the girl you love with all your heart and you don't want to mess this up in any way especially considering that you grew up away from normal society so have no idea what a proper date it and how to make a girl happy?" How had she managed to say all that without breathing.

"Well, yeah."

Laura smiled at him. "Well honey, we've got work to do then."

They went to work. They found a place to eat close to her house which was a small romantic eatery where they booked a table for two. They then went out shopping and bought Q a new outfit. A smart dark blue shirt with black chinos that would go with his dark shoes. They also bought flowers and chocolate along with a rug and blanket. The restaurant had a small park opposite and the plan was to go outside after dinner and watch the stars. They then sat down in a coffee shop where Q went through his worst fears.

"What if she doesn't like the food?"

"They have different options so that will be fine."

"What if she doesn't want to go out in the end?"

"Then you two stay in and watch a movie together."

"What if she can't stand to be alone with me?" .

"Now you are just being stupid Q, you both love eachother and you haven't even gone out on a date yet. Just remember, ask her how she is. Compliment her on how she looks and the evening will go by fine."

Q still felt panicky as he paced his flat. He had managed to get back home and had showered and gotten himself ready for the evening. All he had to do now was wait one hour, five minutes and thirty three seconds.

He alternated between standing and sitting, flicking the TV on and off and on and off. He even got out his father's knife that he had left in the apartment, putting it into his pocket knowing that it would keep him safe. He walked out of his flat and down to his car, knowing that it would take him exactly twelve minutes to driver to her flat.

He arrived outside at exactly eight o'clock, he got out of the car and looked up to see a flash of Amy as she was standing at the third floor window holding an iPad up before she quickly pulled the curtain closed. Q pulled out the flowers and chocolate and little box as he walked up to the door. It was unlocked and he walked up to her apartment, lightly knocking on the door.

It immediately opened and Amy stood in her doorway wearing a the most beautiful dress Q had ever seen. It was a light shade of blue that matched her eyes and it wrapped around her to fit her perfectly as it reached down to just above her knees.

Q felt the breath leave him as he couldn't believe how stunning she was. "Well? What do you think?" She gave him a little twirl.

"I think anyone has ever looked more beautiful than you tonight." Q walked forward and pulled her close, hugging her and giving her a quick kiss. He showed her the flowers which she took from him before taking a long sniff.

"Mom, these smell so good, and you know that purple is one of my favourite colours, along with your emerald green of course." She smiled at him before taking the roses and putting them in an empty vase.

Q put the chocolates down on a table whilst having a look around the apartment. It was smaller than his but still spacious, with a cozy living room and a kitchenette attached. He saw a door of the back which must lead to her bedroom. "Don't you worry though, Laura helped me plan the whole evening."

She laughed at him, "that's good to know, she probably won't starve tonight then."

Q pulled out the little box from his pocket. "Though I did pick this by myself." Q opened the box to show her a little necklace. It had a small metal Angel made of silver on the chain which had two little eyes that were inlaid with emeralds.

"Oh my god Q, it's so beautiful, I love it so much." She turned around and lifted her hair to allow Q to slip it around her neck. She turn back to him after he had fastened it and they kissed again.

They made their way down to Q's Ferrari where he opened the door to let her in the passenger seat. They drove through the town making light conversation.

"So what were you doing out the window when I arrived?"

"Oh I hoped you hadn't noticed. I was face timing my mum. I told her all about you, well almost. I just said that you worked with me. They know I work for SHIELD so they didn't pry. Anyway mum wanted to see you. They also invited us over for thanksgiving next weekend. You know when in Rome and all that so you've got to come with me just so I can grin and bear it." Q laughed and nodded, he was looking forward to spending the weekend with her family.

He pulled up outside the restaurant, getting an approving nod from the waiter who stood just inside after the ma had looked at both his car and at his girlfriend. He showed them to their table and the two of them sat opposite though their hands were linked across the table. There was an old couple sitting next to him and the lady smiled at him and the old man gave him an approving nod.

They ordered their meal, Amy turned out to love the menu, and finally got down to learning everything about eachother. Amy was at an advantage having read his file but hey still told eachother everything, though Q just glossed over his training. He didn't want to talk about that here and spoil their evening.

He learnt that Amy had been born in Westminster where her parents both worked. Her father owned a technology firm and her mother was a lead programmer there. They had moved to LA after Stark industries had incorporated their business ten years ago and that's where Amy and grown up properly. She had skipped several grades before going to study psychology at Culver a few years early where she excelled and got her doctorate in a record time. Her parents were apparently very proud in her.

It was almost the exact life Q could have wished for. A loving family, a good education though he would have preferred weapon physics and that hot British accent to top it off.

They whiled away the evening talking about their favourite colours and their favourite animals. How Amy liked her tea and how Q couldn't stand the stuff. Their food was delicious and the waiter brought out is special desert that he wouldn't charge the, for after he found out that it was their first date.

After their full meal, Q payed the Cheque and they left, grabbing a bag out of the car before crossing the road into the little park opposite. Q spread out a rug and lay down on it with Amy, pulling a blanket around them as they looked up at the stars that were amazingly clear even with all the lights around. They held eachother close, Amy snuggled closed into Q's arm.

Q asked the question that had been on his mind for a week now. "What did you think, after you saw me almost kill Nat. After you saw me for the first time"

"I thought that you were the reason I became a psychologist. I want to help people Q, people that are messed up inside. People who think they are monsters when they are good people inside," she poked him with the last sentence.

After awhile Amy took her turn to ask him a question. "How do you do it, I can still barely sleep at night after Russia and they just kidnapped me for one day. You were raised and tortured there and made into a perfect assassin but you still are able to sit here and be happy and love me. I don't understand you Q, any normal person would be a train were killed right now."

Q looked down into her eyes, "I don't know. I suppose I just always felt better around the people I've met now and they help me to calm me down. Like whenever I have a nightmare now I have my beautiful girlfriend to think of to calm me down."

She punched him in the arm, "ugh you charmer you. Still you are only sixteen so maybe it's all about that child mentality with you adapting to new circumstances."

"Now look who's talking calling me a child, I seem to remember that it was me and stopping the bad guy." He rolled his eyes at her.

"And I remember that it was me who snapped you out of her control."

He hugged her closer and they lay back. They lay there for long time, almost falling asleep before they got back up and Q drove them back to her house. He walked her inside, surprised at how late it had gotten since it was almost one. They both felt sleepy standing at her door.

She leaned in and kissed him for what felt like the hundredth time that evening. "This was great Q, tell Laura she plans a great date." She leaned in pressing her head against his chest. "I love you, you know that Q don't you?"

He heard doubt in her voice, he looked at her. "Amy I love you more that I thought it was possible to ever love someone and I literally didn't know what love was until a week ago." They kissed again before she turned away and went into her own apartment closing the door behind her. Q felt like a part of him was missing again withAmy not being near him but he had to get his act together if he wanted to make it home before the morning.

Amy and Q spent most of the weekend together apart from a few counselling trips Amy had to make. They went around Central Park and went to the zoo. They went out for dinner again and also stayed in to watch movies late into the night. They had surprisingly similar taste in films even if Amy did love a trashy RomCom every now and again.

They never stayed over though, both of them deciding to leave at the last minute before it became to late to go. Q still felt a little awkward around Amy. He had been taught that to love someone was to ruin their life and he didn't feel that he was quite ready to go any further with her yet.

Though all good things had to come to and end and Q was left alone as he sat in his office sharpening his knife. He had been sitting around for more than an hour after he had arrived before finally having doctor Hope cut of his cast saying it had finally healed and to not break it again or else.

He was back on active duty now so he just had to wait for a call in for a mission. Thankfully he didn't have to wait long as his communicator bleeped just after the knife had been polished to a perfect razor edged gleam.

Q race out of the office as he read the message. A cold weather arctic team had found something and he was being sent to check it out. He got in the elevator before speeding down to outfitters. He found the quartermaster sitting behind a large desk which was built into a wall. The man seemed likeable though he heard stories about the old legend , who seemed to be older than shield was, of him putting live grenades in the pockets of people he didn't like so it was best not to get on his bad side.

"Morning Trevor. I need the smallest cold weather pack you've got, being shipped up to the Arctic." Q smile at the man from infront of the desk. The man looked older than Q could guess but he still spun around and waltzed of to came back a few minutes later with a pack for him.

"Be careful with this one," he spoke with a rough smokers cough, "it's the only one I've got in your size so you better not break it."

Q grabbed the rucksack and walked back to the elevator before feeling it to take him back up to the hanger. He checked inside the bag to find a thermal vest and thick jacket that was inlaid with warm fur. He would live out there at least, though he was disappointed that there were no grenades inside because you never know when you need one.

He walked over to a Quinjet than had actually been assigned to him this time and walked up the ramp to find a large African man who Q was pretty sure was called Buster. He wasn't sure if that was his real name or just hobby but he decided not to find out just this second. He shook the hand that had been offered him and remembered after a second that he was meant to speak now as he was technically a senior agent even though this man had been in the business for twenty years now.

"From the looks of things this is just an boring opp. Go to the Arctic, find see what the guys drilled through and bring it home." The man nodded at him and sat down, strapping himself in.

Q took the pilots chair as he didn't trust anyone else to fly him around and they were in the air in twenty seconds. The journey would be short and Q was surprised at how good company Buster was. He made good conversation the whole way though his belief that the Glock was to unwieldy and you needed something subtler was just wrong.

Q saw his landing circle down below him as he circle the Arctic base camp by looking at a ring of red lights. He parked down carefully and got of the ramp. He had put on his cold weather uniform mid flight.

The ground staff were surprised to see such a young boy get of the jet and immediately looked over at the large agent that followed him off the jet. These were SHIELD agents but he supposed that his antics couldn't have spread through the whole organisation yet.

"We've secured the site but it's gonna take a while to excavate. A Russian oil team found it eighteen hours ago and called it in." He was looking at Agent Buster but it was Q who replied.

"How come it wasn't found sooner?" He felt a twinge of annoyance at being assumed that he was a lower agent.

The man seemed to cotton on and addressed him now. "The ice shelf move you see, the whole landscape could have change in the last few months."

"Well let's hook up a crane and pull it out." They were walking up a small ridge now.

"Not sir, you don't understand. You would need one hell of a crane." As they reached the crest of the hill Q saw a huge outline of red lights marking a path through the snow. Whatever the team had found it was huge and buried deep in the snow.

It didn't take long for them to drill a hole through the ice but when Buster started suggesting Radiation suites Q just fired the grapple hook from his watch and dropped down inside. It was a large cavernous space with what looks slime metal beams running from floor to ceiling. Q shone his light around looking onto the corners. He couldn't quite decide what it was.

Buster had also dropped into the cavern behind him and was looking around.

"What do you think it is?" His deep voice sounded quiet in the deep tunnel.

"I've got no idea." Q walked forward to a small out crop but almost stumbled on a patch of ice. He knelt down and wiped away the layer of snow covering the ice. He saw a glint of red and silver through the ice and gasped.

He stood up and fumbled for his communicator, keying in a number.

"Agent Hill, what is it Q?" She knew who was calling them, maybe called ID?

"I need Fury on the line now, you are never going to guess what we've found, Coulson is gonna freak when he hears."

As Hill was transferring him over to Fury's office, Q knelt down and started to wipe away more of the snow, looking closer at the disk in the ice. Even he knew what it was, envy where had heard the stories and he was closer than most people to the myth being an attempt to recreate it.

The star starred back at him as be heard Fury's voice. "What, what have you found."

"You are never going to believe this sir, but I think I'm standing in the Valkyrie. Sir, it's Captain America's ship. The one he crashed to stop HYDRA from destroying the planet." He could barely contain the excitement in his voice.

"How do you know?" He couldn't glean any emotion from Fury.

"Well his shield is a dead giveaway really, hang on a second." Q pulled out his gun and shot the ice infront of him. The bullet went deep into the ice causing it to splinter and crack. Q heard a pinging sound as his bullet proved that the shield was real.

"What the the hell!?" Buster had spun around, Q had forgotten to warn him about foreign a shot. Q pulled the disk out of the ice. It wasn't heavy but it defiantly felt strong. He pulled his arms through the straps and held onto it.

He unmuted himself on his call to Fury. "Yessir this is definitely his shield. I don't know if he is here though, no one could have survived that crash."

"Try and find him Agent, I'm sending all reserve teams to secure the area and transport the ship back to base. Keep me informed Jacobs."

The line went dead and Q clipped his communicator back to his belt. He looked around, looking intently into the outcropping of ice that he had initially gone to see.

Buster almost managed to conceal his excitement. "Oh every one is gonna be so jealous that we were the ones to find this."

"Calm it down Buster, we haven't found him yet." Buster stood up straighter and brushed himself down. Q swore he could see the big man blushing a bit.

Q was standing over a large spike of ice. He held his hands infront of him when standing just to the side of the spike. If he was right than this was the pilots chair, it was in a perfect place to look out the windows that must have broken infront of it. Q could see small shards of glass in the ice.

He rubbed of the snow and saw deep in the block of ice a gloved hand. He recoiled a bit, shocked at what he saw but immediately pulled out his communicator and texted Fury.

Found him.

Less than an hour later they were back on the jet. A large block of ice was sitting on a central table. Q was sitting at one end and there were a few techies down each side. They had managed to get an outline of the body in the ice and had cut him out. They were going to defrost him back at home.

The techies were talking over the ice block

"What a way to go though, crashing into the ice and saving the planet can't ask for more than that really."

"Well ya know he had someone, she musta spent her whole life waiting for him,"

One of the techies was using some imaging technology to look into the body. "What I don't understand is how his body stayed together, there isn't a broken bone in here and... HOLY CRAP! Sir you will want to look at this."

Q strode around the body, the imagine camera was pointed at his heart. Q wasn't sure what to look for but he then saw the heart pulse. He looked up at the techie but the man just nodded. The machine wasn't malfunctioning.

"Holy shit, this guys still alive."

Thy landed back at SHIELD and a medical team ran up the ramp and pulled the trolley with Captain Rogers frozen on it.

He heard Coulson outside yelling at them to get him deforested. Q followed the medical team down the ramp at a slower pace, carrying the shield with him. He smiled at Coulson who handed a cup of coffee to him.

"What is it about you? We send you on a boring mission to the Arctic and you find a national treasure." Coulson was smiling down at him before turning away and walked to the elevator with Q followed him.

They arrived up on the hospital wing that was hidden inside the building. Q and Coulson found that they could look through a two way mirror into a room where five people were spreading heaters around the ice block. They also had hand held heaters which they were waving over the body and slowly water started dripping of the table.

A hand was the first thing to emerge and then the legs were freed. It wouldn't take long for the ice to be gone. Q and Coulson waited in their room for about thirty minutes before Fury came in.

"Coulson I know you want to be a part of this but I need you back in Santa Fe." Coulson looked crushed but he knew better than to argue with Fury who turned to Q. "You however Jacobs, have got nothing better to do so this is your new assignment. Your job is to wake the Captain up and then to watch him after that. He's been asleep for a damn long time and it's gonna be hard for him but I think we can turn him into an asset."

That was Fury, handed a war hero who had miraculously survived crashing into an ice shelf and Fury was already wanting to turn him into a weapon. Q rolled his eyes at Fury but was just met by the signature death stare. "Jacobs, just break it to him slowly."

The two men left the room and Q pressed a button that let him talk into the room next door. "How long do we have before he will wake up?" The doctor in the next room just shrugged so Q turned around and pulled out his communicator.

He gave orders quickly through it. Fury had assigned him a team that he was now assembling in a control room ASAP. He was close to running over there and when he got in he found almost twenty people waiting inside.

He started talking as soon as he got in. "Ok, first of I'm going to tell you that this obviously doesn't leave this room to anyone else." He looked around to see general nods. "We found something under the ice in the arctic. The Valkyrie, then ship Captain Rogers, better know as Captain America crashed into the water. We found the body of Captain Rogers inside and ascertained that he had survived the crash and the cryofreeze his body had undertaken." Mum earring broke out as the whole team started talking, shocked at what they had heard.

"Hey" Q shouted over the crowd. "He is back at SHIELD HQ and I'm giving us three hours to prepare. We are going to make a 1945 hospital room that he will wake up in. Bed, Windows and radio. Everything."

He looked across to a group of techies. "You lot are in charge of building the room. Find sheets and clothes from old S.S.R stocks." The group rushed off. He pointed at a small group of burley agents. "You lot will be running security, if he gets upset we need him contained."

He finally looked at the only woman in the room. She was young and attractive, with curly black hair. "You are going to be the secretary or something that goes into his room. You need to find a uniform and just be ready to talk to him to say you want him to meet something, OK?" She nodded up at him.

"Any questions?" He knew he had perfected the voice that meant he didn't want any questions but still asked anyway. No one said anything, "well get to work then."

They all scrambled to race away to their various positions and in just over two hours a small room was ready that was in the centre of a large room. It had screens infront of fake windows that would make it look like the person inside was in central New York, and speakers were added to complete the effect.

Captain Rogers and been transferred inside and Q was outside the small room, watching a screen that was on the wall outside of the box and showed the feed from a small camera inside the room. He saw Captain Rogers eyes flitter open and signalled for the girl who he learned was called Sarah to go inside. He listened in through the door.

Rogers had sat up and was looking at the radio when Sarah walked in.

She spoke first, "Good morning, or should I say afternoon."

"Where am I." He had a deep voice, smooth and soft though with a hint of nervousness.

"You are in a recovery room in New York City." Her eyes had widened a bit, she hadn't expected him to be hostile. His eyes flitted around before coming back to rest on her.

"Where am I really." Q's stomach dropped, he had worked it out, but how?

Sarah sounded slightly panicked now, "I'm afraid I don't understand." Q had to get her out of there, she was going to blow it.

"The game, it's from May 1941. I know, I was there." He stood up and walked closer to Sarah. "Now I'm going to ask you one last time, where am I." Fucking hell Q was going to castrate whoever fucked this up. He signalled for the two man team to go in. Rogers needs to calm down soon before he hurt himself.

Q was a little surprised by what happened next. It took less than three seconds for Rogers to throw both of them through the wall and he jumped outside the room. Q heard Sarah call after Rogers before Rogers started running. "Please stop, you have to under-" Captain America had already made it to the door.

Q pulled off his headset and started running after Rogers. He pulled out his communicator and yelled into it, "we have a code 13, apprehend Captain Rogers."

It was harder said then done though as Rogers ran faster than the devil and Q was having trouble keeping pace. The other agents had no chance but he knew that they would follow in cars. Rogers jumped out a window and made it to the street. Q needed to stop him fast, he was going to have a breakdown soon.

He jumped out the same window and start running after he he captain. He felt like he was running faster than he ever had, he was running faster than most sprinters but he still could barely gain on Rogers. He was chasing the big man down the centre of the road as they entered Times Square. Rogers stopped and turned to face Q who tried to break but still almost collided with Rogers. Almost because Rogers grabbed him at the last second and threw him over his head, using Q's motion against him.

Q almost felt like he was flying, Rogers had thrown him twenty meters but he still managed to land on his feet, skidding backwards. He felt himself instinctively reaching for his staff but he stopped himself and held up his hands. Cars had circled Rogers and he looked panicked.

Q took a hunch and called out, "Stand down soldier." Rogers immediately slackened and tuned to face Q. "We wanted to break this easily to you captain, but that's not the point now."

"What is the point then?" He sounded incredibly confused and Q could still see him searching for a way out between the cars.

"You've been asleep for a long time Cap, almost seventy years." Q tried not to have to much pity in his voice but he couldn't keep it out of his voice. "you gonna be ok?"

The captain looked around, down the street and up at the billboards. "Yeah, it's just that I had a date."

Q sent the Agents back to base, they didn't need to cause a scene. Q took Rogers to his favourite coffee shop. The barista smiled at him and got his order ready. Rogers took his big coffee and sat down at the table Q had pointed out. They were next to a big window that looked out onto the street. Rogers hadn't said anything since Times Square.

"So I guess you have some questions then? Fire away" Q put on his warmest smile. He needed Rogers to open up to him.

"What's your name kid?" Q grimaced at him.

"Trust me, I'm not a kid. Call me Q. My full name is Quentin Jacobs, but no one calls me that. Can I call you Steve?" Steve nodded at him. "I work for an organisation called SHIELD. It's a global unit made for one purpose, to keep the peace. Anywhere and everywhere. It actually grew out of your unit, the SSR."

Steve nodded at this, "and Pegg, I mean, Peggy Carter, is she?" His voice trailed off.

"Oh you mean, Agent Carter. She is still alive and living in London. She was one of the founding members of SHIELD." He hoped that the news that's he was on their side would help though the information surronding their relationship was scarce. "I can set up contact if you would like?"

"No it's been to long, but it feels like she kissed me an hour ago." His eyes widened for a second, "I mean, don't think wrong of her."

Q laughed when he realised what Steve was saying. "Ha, no don't worry, the world has changed a lot since you went under. Relationships chief amongst them."

He nodded at this and took a sip of his coffee, again looking out the window. "Did we win?"

"Yes we did, the whole war was over by the end of 1945, you won it for us. You know that right? People nowadays, they see you as something more than human. You were a superhero." Big blue eyes stared at him from across the table.

"They... You mean I'm some sorta hero? That doesn't feel right to me."

"Don't underestimate yourself, the serum they used on you has been attempt to be recreated many times, though mostly unsuccessfully." Q thought about the Harlem incident.

"Well I thought that we were fighting to make it so the world didn't need people to fight anymore." He looked annoyed, maybe realising that his idea about the future hadn't come true.

"After the war ended, our side split Germany in half and a massive amount of tension between the east which was communist and the west which was capitalist caused the next fifty years to be full of fear that the other side would invade. We did what you would expect, we built weapons. Bombs that can level cities and then countries, guns that can fire for miles and of course, super soldiers where a top priority. SHIELD was born out of that, we were always there to try and stop war." Q hoped he sounded honest in his recap of the last fifty years.

"That disappointing to hear, I always thought that it was the war to end war. That after it was over we could just go home." He looked sad now.

"Talking about home, I was told that your apartment should be ready for you now." Q knew that SHIELD must just have a few ready around the place. He had picked one that was just around the corner from his apartment.

They left the coffee house, and stood on the sidewalk. "It's funny, there are still all the same sounds. The taxis honking, the people streaming past."

"Somethings never change I suppose, especially hailing a cab." Q finally managed to get one to pull over and they got in, Q giving the address of Steve's new home. They arrived at the block and Q found the door to his apartment open. It had a nice entry way with some shelfs that you could see through to a kitchen and eating area and a lounge was done the hall.

The place was almost fully furnished and Q was glad to see that someone had brought the shield to his place. It was waiting for them just inside the door, propped against some shelves.

Q pixels it up and passed it to Steve who looked at it closely. "What happened on the plane, I found that in the ice on the other side of the plane to you."

"You found it?" He looked surprised at Q

"Oh yeah, I was eye one in the Arctic who first say you. I had just came of injure leave and had what was meant to be an easy mission to ease me back in and yet I found you."

Steve actually laughed at that, Q was glad to hear that he could actually laugh. "Bet that was a shock."

"Sure was, my handler almost jumped with joy, he's a big fan." Steve laughed again and started to look around the apartment.

"There is so much you have around here that just don't know what it is. Like what is that?" He was pointing at the TV on the wall.

"You must have had TV back then." Q laughed a little daunted by home big his job was becoming.

"We did but they sure didn't look like that, how is it so thin?" He looked amazed at it.

"I don't even know to be honest."

Steve was looking around the apartment, he was especially confused by the microwave.

They ended up having an fun afternoon with Q showing Steve the basic so the phone and laptop that had been left for him. He finally started to get the hang of it after three or four hours by which time it was late evening and they were ready to go out and get some dinner.

Q texted Amy and was glad that she could meet her out. Q was glad she could be there, he didn't quite yet feel safe around Steve and wanted a calming presence nearby. They decided to get pizza and waited outside the restaurant for Amy. Q saw her walking down the street towards them.

"So is this girl your...?" Q didn't answer him as he rushed forward and kissed Amy. After about five second they broke apart and linked hands. "Oh, ummmm."

Steve looked embarrassed now. "Oh sorry that was rude of us, I'm Amy. I work at SHIELD too."

Steve still looked awkward but Q just laughed, "I did tell you that relationships have changed in the last 70 years."

Now it was Amy's turn to be confused now. "Oh yeah, sorry Amy. This is Captain Steve Rogers. Steve this is Amy Waters."

"It's a pleasure to meet you ma'am." He held out his hand for her to shake which she took.

"Oh, how polite, you could teach most men a lesson or two. It's funny, you almost remind me. Wait," she turned to Q. "He isn't, no that's not possible."

Q laughed and leaned in to whisper to her. "Remember when I said I was going to the Arctic, well this is what I found."

"This better not be some trick Q." She turned to Steve, "are you really... I mean, are you actually. Well Captain America?"

Steve looked strangely used to this attention. "Yes ma'am."

"Ohmygod, this is so awesome. I mean you are a hero and this is so cool and-" Q coughed and Amy started. "No of course, be professional. It's good to meet you Captain Rogers."

"Steve please, it's also a pleasure to make your acquaintance to ma'am."

"Oh please stop with that ma'am business, my name is Amy. Anyway, I'm staving so let's go eat." She turned to open the door and walked inside the restaurant.

Q turned to Steve as they walked in behind Amy, "I told you. Your a hero."

They sat down inside and Q and Amy sat opposite Steve in a booth. After they ordered, Steve just went for pepperoni because he wanted what already knew, their conversation turned to work.

"So what do you do for SHIELD Q?" Steve sounded polite but Q knew that he wanted to know whether he could trust him.

As Q was winding the same thing he decided to answer truthfully. "Anything they want me to do really, if you get what I mean. Though I've only been an agent for a month and a half. I'm only sixteen and a week you see."

"And what, it's ok for us to send sixteen year olds to fight now?" He sounded worried about what world he had woken up in.

Q laughed again but felt Amy's hand clench his under the table, she had known what he was feeling, unease at talking about his past. "I was, special circumstances. I well."

Amy cut across him, "are you sure you are ok to talk about this. I mean after Russia I understand if it would be-"

Q the pen cut her off, "no he needs to know." Amy only nodded at him. "I, well I grew up in Russia. I was born in St Petersburg. God it must have been called Stalingrad back then. My mother died when I was born and my father was killed so I could be recruited into a soviet research program. It was an attempt to recreate you. After your doctor was killed, no one could recreate the serum but they attempted with me. It was, well it wasn't pleasant what they did but it worked. I'm stronger and faster then normal people."

"Don't forget smarter, he's basically a genius." Amy added in quickly

"Yeah that to. So yeah, they took me and trained me to kill and I got on SHIELD's radar and they brought me in and recruited me. So here I am."

Steve had a slightly furrowed brow as he looked across at him. "I wanted to make a better world, but I just made it worse."

Q was about to shut him down but Amy got there first. "You don't know how much good you did, the world would be far worse without you and Q is one of the good guys now. Without you he would never have been that."

Q didn't feel that was right, after Russia he just felt like he was evil inside.

"I hope that's true Miss Waters." Q felt empathy for Steve. The man had been blasted out of time to land in a strange new world and had to adapt to survive.

they payed the cheque and parted ways for the night with the promise to spend the next day sight seeing around New York to get Steve back up to speed with the city.

The next day they visited all the favourite place. Steve said most hadn't changed, it was just what you saw from them had. Apparently Brooklyn had gotten a bit more expensive in the last seventy years. Also people had started building what Steve called "ugly great towers with their name on." Q realised he meant Stark tower.

"Oh Tony's not so bad, a bit of a dick but you learn to get along." Steve looked surprised that he knew Stark.

"I knew his father or maybe grandfather. Howard Stark, if they are anything alike then I think I will be better of not knowing him."

Q hoped that Steve was getting more in touch with modern times but knew it was something that he had to do at his own pace and he couldn't be pressured to be faster otherwise he would close himself off.

Q had messaged Coulson aswell for his little idea which needed some design input and Coulson was only to happy to help seeing as he was stuck in Santa Fe. Q still hadn't managed to weasel out of him what he was doing there as it was one of the only SHIELD projects that he didn't have clearance for.

On the beginning of the third day, Q and Steve decided to go for a run. It felt odd having someone who could keep pace with him even though they were running faster then all the people around them. Q started to enjoy it and it quickly became a race with the two of them pretty much neck and neck through Central Park. They finally called it a tie because they had reached SHIELD HQ and had to stop.

They went inside to find the gym, Q at least didn't get any stares as they walked through the building as they were all thrown at Steve now. "It feels good to not have them stare at me."

"I don't know, it doesn't feel so great for me. Why were they staring at you?"

"Oh I stopped a little alien invasion in New Mexico, nothing much really." Steve laughed, unsure whether he was telling the truth. They finally found the gym and Steve and Q started to work out.

They spent most of their morning putting the gym equiptment through its paces before finally deciding to have a sparring match. They had amassed a small crowd and Q could see money changing hands as bets were placed.

Q clicked his fingers loudly, "now don't feel bad when you lose, you are getting on a bit now." There were loud ooooooo's from the crowd.

"I wouldn't count me out yet kiddo, I won't be going easy on you." The crowd could feel the tension rising and Q realised that now was as good a time as ever and pushed his foot forward, throwing a quick punch into Steve's gut but he managed to block it.

Steve reversed the punch and pulled Q towards him, sweeping Q's legs out at the same time but Q just fell on his hands and did a flip to kick Steve from behind and Steve stumbled slightly and Q used this to his advantage kicked Steve behind his knees causing him to go down on one knee.

Q heard a grunt from Steve which he felt glad that he had managed to fight him to a standstill. He knew that Steve could probably destroy any other person in the room. He didn't count Steve out though as the huge man was already back on his feet.

"You can't keep me down that easy." He leaped forward and double kicked Q in the chest. Q felt himself flying backwards, his chest felt incredibly painful and for the first time he realised how strong Steve really was as he had been thrown across the room and he had still felt Steve pull his kick slightly. Steve could probably rip him in half if he wanted to.

Q wasn't going to lose this fight though and got back up even though his body told him to sit out of this fight. He got back up and ran at Steve. He stood ready to catch him in a lock but at the last second Q dropped base ball style and slid beneath him before pushing his feet on the floor, skidding to a stop just behind Steve before punching his in the back of the thigh causing him to grunt again and then Q jumped up and spun in the air to land in a handstand on Steve's shoulders. His momentum carried him around and as he fell in front of Steve he locked his hands around the back on his head and slammed his knee into his jaw making a sickening crunch.

Q landed in a crouch ready to spring back if needed Steve just stood up and held out a hand to him. Q took it and Steve pulled him up as he said "That was a good fight. Thanks, I needed something to take my mind of of things."

Q heard a voice from the crowd. Fury stepped forward, "Yes it was, it's good to see you out Cap. I will se you in my office in five, bring Jacobs with you if he can still walk." That got a laugh from the crowd which had started to disperse.

Q rubbed his chest as he followed Steve to the elevator.

"You sure you don't want to go down to medical?" Steve sounded concerned

"Nah, I'm fine and I don't want to fade the wrath of Dr Hope over a little bruise" in fairness he would have a wicked bruise. Steve could kick harder than anything.

They got out of the elevator. "What should I be expecting in there?" Q could tell that Steve wasn't ready to join SHIELD yet and was fully expecting Fury to try and recruit him.

"You should be ready for Fury to ask you to get back out there. He wants you with us but I understand that you probably aren't ready yet" Q felt Stevens big blue eyes searching his emerald ones

Steve grimace told Q all he needed to know. They walked into Fury's office and stood in front of his desk where was sitting and looking at some files. He motioned for the two of them to sit down and they sat in the two chairs opposite the desk.

"Well captain Rogers, you seem to have gotten back on track after being on ice. I didn't expect Jacobs to let you stay away for long."

"With respect sir, Steve has only been out of the ice for a few days now. It's to early to send I'm on a mission." Fury stared at Q. Q felt intimidated but he was not going to back down against Fury, he felt like he had to protect Steve even though they had only been friends for a short time. Wait friends, is that what they were. Could Q really include Steve amongst that list that he kept close to his heart.

He looked at Steve's blue eyes and saw relief in them and Q knew he could. He was ready to protect Steve to his last breath. But then of course Fury played his cards.

"Well it's good to see that this mission is for you then Q, after your assassination of the Mistress of the Red Room and with some proper work from Agent Romanov, I've uncovered some leads on the doctor who performed the experiments on you and I'm sending you to chase him down. I had believed that Captain Rogers could assist you." Q could swear he could see the bastard's lips curl at the corners.


End file.
